A coalition of concerned Sokoto citizens has sent a save our soul appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, to urgently come to the aid of the people in the area and end the incessant killings in the state.
The coalition also appealed to the Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to use his office to save the people of the zone from further bandits attack.
Professor Nasiru Gatawa who addressed journalists at the Nigerian Union of Journalists, press centre in Sokoto on Thursday, disclosed that the Wednesday attack claimed over 70 lives of people in the area.
He disclosed that between January and now, more than twenty deadly attacks have been unleashed on the people of the zone, in which over 270 lives were lost in the process.
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Professor Gatawa also said, “we have 8 local governments in the zone which includes Gada, Goronyo, Gwadabawa, Illeila, Isa, Rabbah, Sabon Birni and Wurno local governments areas.
“Each of these local governments has part of it under the control of bandits whose heinous activities have crippled social and economic activities which have led to the loss of hundreds of lives and properties running into billions of naira in the zone.
“The most terrorised local government in the zone is Sabon Birni where bandits operate freely and in a broad daylight for several hours with little and in many cases no help from the government.
“Each of the eleven Ward’s under in Sabon Birni local government has parts of it under the total control of bandits whose permission and consent the villagers need to conduct wedding or naming ceremonies or even have a market day.
“As we speak today, even the local government headquarters of the 8 local government in the Eastern zone of Sokoto State are in total fear.
“The situation is getting so serious that even Sokoto Metropolis cannot boast of being safe from the attacks of bandits because the activities of these bandits are gradually expanding to villages a few kilometres to Sokoto City.
“On the eve of this Sallah, suspected bandits attacked and killed a prominent businessman in Ummaruma, a village stone’s throw away from Sokoto city” he added.
He, however, appealed to Federal Government and Sokoto State government to direct NEMA and SEMA respectively to immediately provide support to the victims of these attacks.
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