7 arrested for the slaying of 19 people in Zamfara

Zamfara State Governor Abdul'Aziz Yari Abubakar has confirmed that the police have arrested seven suspects in connection with the Saturday attack on Lingyado village where 19 people were reportedly killed and several others injured.

The governor, who spoke to newsmen yesterday in Gusau on the 12 years of shari'ah implementation and the15th anniversary of the state, said the Commissioner of Police confirmed the arrest to him, assuring that the suspects would be moved to the state capital for prosecution. It seems they have developed their own criminal investigation schools.

He said the state might request the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, to release a patrol helicopter to comb the forest hideout of the bandits "because tracking them with vehicles is proving unsuccessful, as they operate with motorcycles".

According to the governor, security reports have shown that the attackers are mostly from outside the state and are from countries as far as the Central African Republic.

He said reports reaching him from the Emir of Dansadau showed that the villagers were seeking refuge at neighbouring villages.

Claiming that the attackers were based in Magami area of Maradun Local Government Area, the governor said the information available to the sole administrator of the council area had indicated that the attackers planned to attack Lingyado and another village.

The governor, who regretted that the attack had occurred before government officials could communicate the information to the state capital, said security agents were, however, quickly mobilized to avert the attack on the other village.

Recounting series of attacks that had so far led to the death of over 30 people in Dansadau, the governor said "it started when some groups of Fulani men proclaimed that nobody, except them, could ever again own cattle in the area."

This, according to him, made villagers, in collaboration with vigilante groups kill suspected robbers of Fulani descent; a development he attributed to the series of reprisal attacks in the area.

If the security agencies were under his command, he claimed, the attacks would have been averted. "That is why I don't blame people agitating for state police because if you cannot hire and fire a person, you can hardly control him/her," he said.

Daily Trust

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Gunmen kill 19 villagers in Zamfara

At least 19 people have been shot or hacked to death in a brutal attack in a village in north-west Nigeria, police say.

Eyewitnesses said about 150 people raided the village of Lingyado, in Zamfara state close to the border with Niger, with guns and machetes.

A police spokesman said it appeared to be a reprisal attack in response to a similar incident in August.

Security forces have been sent to the area to restore order.

Police spokesman Sunusi Amiru said six others were wounded in the attack and were receiving medical attention.

"We are on top of the situation, we are on the trail of the suspects, we have deployed more men to the trouble spots," he told Reuters news agency.

The BBC's Nigeria correspondent Jonah Fisher says the victims were attacked as they emerged from their homes.

When the shooting began, some residents fled into nearby cornfields, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Some of the attackers shouted that they would rape any women they found, one witness, Ahmad Tsauri Lingyado, told AP.

One witness, speaking from hospital, told the BBC that his house was targeted first, and that he saw both his grand-daughter and daughter-in-law killed.

BBC

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Gunmen kill19 villagers in Zamfara

The spate of killings in the North took a strange turn Sunday as gunmen suspected to be Hausa/Fulani herdsmen attacked and killed 19 in Lingyado, a predominantly Hausa/Fulani village in Zamfara State.

Recent killings in the North often had ethno-religious coloration but Sunday's early morning attack is confounding the authorities who are now suspecting armed robbery.

In a style similar to Jos attacks, gunmen carrying machetes attacked Lingyado, going from house to house posing as visitors before shooting and slashing 19 people to death, witnesses and police said according to The Associated Press (AP) report.

About 150 attackers surrounded the village and roamed between its compounds, shooting residents who came out to greet them, Husaini Dansadau told AP.When theshootingbegan,many who were ableto flee ran away.Some of the gunmen shouted that they would rape the women they found, a witness and brother to one of the victims, Ahmad Tsauri Lingyado, said.

The attackers reportedly used Kalashnikov rifles and machetes in the attack.

They also stole money and valuables before fleeing into the darkness.

Tsauri disclosed that they survived the attack by fleeing into corn fields.

 

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President Goodluck Jonathan pledges to eradicate polio within 2 years

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan pledged on Thursday to set up a special government team to ensure the eradication of polio from Africa's most populous nation within two years.

"I can assure you that we will work very hard on polio with the objective of eradicating it in the next 24 months. It is now limited to about six states and eradicating it within our tenure is a goal we will pursue with full commitment," Jonathan said during a visit to the Nigerian capital by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Gates and his wife have a $34 billion foundation devoted largely to health projects in poor countries, including efforts to wipe out polio globally.

The disease spreads in areas with poor sanitation, attacks the nervous system and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours of infection. Children under five are the most vulnerable.

Polio is endemic in just four countries -- India, Pakistan, Nigeria and Afghanistan -- and there has been a 99 percent reduction in cases since 1988, when the World Health Organization and its partners formed the Global Polio Eradication Initiative to fight it.

At that time, polio was endemic in 125 countries and caused paralysis in nearly 1,000 children every day.

Reuters

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