Skip to main content

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

                                   NAF Jet used to illustrate the story
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)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Killings: Group demands resignation of Police IG

                              A human rights group, National Intervention Group of Nigeria, has called for the resignation of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, for alleged loss of morality to continue in office given his inability to tackle killings across the country. The convener of the group, Segun Akinloye, made this call on Tuesday at a press conference in Abuja on the state of the nation. Mr Akinloye said “the lives of Nigerians, even in Nigeria appears nowadays to be cheaper and more worthless than ever before witnessed or recorded in history.” He frowned at the powerlessness of the police to abate the killings, warning that Nigeria may be heading to division and eventual collapse if urgent steps are not taken. He made reference to the killings in Southern Kaduna, Benue, Taraba, Kogi, Plateau and Kaduna St...

Kano Hisbah Board destroys 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 m

                                   The Kano State Hisbah Board has seized and destroyed 30 trailer loads of beer worth N150 million. In a statement released on Tuesday December 25th, the board’s Public Relations Officer, Adamu Yahaya, said that the cartons of beer were destroyed on Monday evening December 24th after interception at Kalebawa on Danbata Road in Dawakin Tofa area. “The Kano State Law No. 4 of 2004 has banned the manufacture and use of intoxicants in the state. Furthermore, an order was given by a magistrates’ court for us  to go ahead with the exercise,” the public relations officer said. The worth of a trailer load of beer is between N5.2 million and N5.5 million. The sale of beer and its consumption has been banned in Kano state.

Girl, 16, is gang-raped by four men and dumped to slowly die on building site

  A schoolgirl was allegedly gang-raped and killed by four migrants who dumped her on a building site and left her to die.   Desiree Mariottini, 16, from Cisterna di Latina, Italy, was found dead after being drugged and raped in the construction site in the district of San Lorenzo in October 2018.   A witness claims that the 16-year-old girl went to the abandoned site used by homeless people to buy drugs from the four men.     Narcisa Leon, an Ecuadorian woman who squatted in the abandoned site, told the court that she found the victim lying motionless on a dirty mattress.   She had seen the schoolgirl with the four defendants earlier in the day.     She also said that one of the suspects, Mamadou Gara, confirmed in a conversation with her that they had given the victim a strong tranquiliser and that he had then had "sex with her".   The case is ongoing.   The four men, Yusif Salia, Mamadou Gara, Brian Minteh, and Chima Alinno, are ...