Zamfara emirs apologise to NAF, say air strikes killed innocents ‘mistakenly’

                                   

The Chairman, Zamfara State Council of Chiefs, Attahiru Ahmad, has apologised to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) over its recent allegations that innocent citizens were killed in the state during air strikes by personnel of the Air Force.

The Chairman Council of Chiefs, who is also the Emir of Anka, made the apology when a seven-man high powered investigation team led by Idi Lubo visited him at his palace in Anka on Saturday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the traditional rulers had, a fortnight ago, alleged that air strikes on suspected bandits camps hit at and killed innocent citizens in some parts of the state.

The emirs spoke at a press briefing through the Emir of Bungudu, Hassan Attahiru.

This followed an emergency meeting they held in reaction to an earlier accusation by the Minister of Defence, Mansur Ali, that some high ranking traditional rulers were conniving with the bandits.

“Out of the 17 emirate councils that we have in the state, mistakes occurred in only four and the submissions we made were gathered in the last two years, l also want to state that nothing happened on innocent citizens in the last six months in the state,” he said.

While speaking on the list of killed persons that was later released by the Emir of Bungudu, the Chairman of the Council of Chiefs said: “The Emir of Bungudu is not the spokesman of the council even though he read our press briefing that day.

“The list of victims that he released to the press on a later day did not emanate from me nor was I aware of it as the chairman, l will only take responsibility because l am the chairman”.

He then assured that the traditional council would continue to support security agencies in the fight against armed banditry in the state. He urged the army to go and occupy deserted villages where some of the bandits were hiding.

Earlier, leader of the team, Idi Lubo, said the team was in the state to investigate the true position of the allegations in order to avoid future occurrences.

“We have also come with condolence letter from the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Sadique Abubakar, in case some innocent people were killed in our encounter with bandits.”

NAN reports that the team was taken round stakeholders by the Commander of the 207 Quick Response Group in the state, Sunkanmi Thomas. (NAN)