11th June, 2012
Twenty seven persons, including a policeman were killed by robbers in the early hours of Monday in Dangulbi Village in the Dansadau Emirate of Zamfara, northwest of Nigeria.
A witness, Alhaji Lawalli Dangulbi, who spoke to newsmen at the Gusau Specialist Hospital, said there was pandemonium in the village when the robbers struck, shooting sporadically. According to him, 18 persons died instantly.
Alhaji Dangulbi, who is the chairmanship candidate of the All Nigeria Peoples Party for Maru Local Government Area in the Local Government Council polls coming up later this month, explained that the other dead were discovered in neighbouring villages of Biya, Guru and Sabuwar Kasuwa.
The party stalwart said that he managed to carry eight wounded persons from the scene of the attack which, he said, was over 100 kilometres from the state capital, Gusau for treatment.
The Zamfara State Commissioner of Police, Mr Usman Gwary, was however, not available for comments.
The commissioner was said to have travelled to the scene of the crime with the state’s Acting Gov. Alhaji Ibrahim Wakkala. They went there to see things for themselves, sympathise with the people and attend the mass burial of the dead.
The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Sanusi Amiru, confirmed the incident but refused to give further details.
The attack might be a reprisal for an earlier assault on the criminals’ enclaves in the emirate by security operatives and vigilante groups.
The attackers were reported as not having taken anything from their victims during the attack.
State Governor Abdul’Aziz Yari donated vehicles with communications gadgets to security operatives in the state last month, bringing the number of such vehicles to 74.