Date Published: 10/02/11

Robbers massacre 23 including women and children in Zamfara

Suspected armed robbers on sunday massacred 23  persons, including women and children,  in Daraga District in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State.

The attack took place at 5.00 a.m,  when the suspected hoodlums numbering about 70,  stormed the village with offensive weapons like AK47 rifles, daggers, machetes and sticks.

 The  armed robbers, who pretended to be visitors,  reportedly  went from one house to another, killing and maiming people at will.

It was  learnt that some of the corpses of the deceased were  deposited at the Federal Medical Centre, Gusau, while the relations of the victims and sympathisers kept on trooping to the mortuary.

The Zamfara State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Sanusi Amiru, confirmed the incident but was quick to add that security had been beefed up in the troubled area.

Meanwhile, the Zamfara State police command has declared Superintendent Ibrahim Bamuche, Chief Security Officer to the state governor, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, missing.

Speaking with newsmen in Gusau, the new Commissioner of Police,  Alhaji Tambari Yabo, dispelled the rumour doing the rounds that the police officer had been killed.

According to him, the police officer was supposed to attend a senior police officers course in Jos,  capital of Plateau State about a month ago, but his vehicle was found while his whereabouts remained unknown. He added that the vehicle was found beside three graves.

He said  when his command was informed about the incident, the Plateau State command  was contacted and informed about the development.

Yabo disclosed that the Plateau State police commissioner directed that the bodies in the three graves be exhumed but the identity of the police officer did not tally with any of the three  bodies.

Commenting further, the police boss maintained that as far as the command was concerned, the case of the Superintendent of police was a case of a missing person, stressing that, “we cannot say at this stage that he was killed until investigation over his disappearance is completed.”