Gunmen ambushed and killed at least 62 members of Kebbi vigilantes in Sakaba/Wassagu LGA of Kebbi State on Sunday evening
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
From the safety of his medical tourism destination in Europe, President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday expressed sadness over what he described as “the brutal murder of tens of vigilante members in Kebbi State by bandits who ambushed them in the Sakaba/Wassagu Local Government Area.”
Gunmen ambushed and killed at least 62 members of a volunteer vigilante group in Kebbi State on Sunday evening.
The head of the group and a police spokesman confirmed the massacre, which is the worst violence to hit the state since mid-January.
Usman Sani, the head of the “Yan Sa Kai” vigilante group in Kebbi, told Reuters that his group had planned to attack bandits in the Sakaba area on Sunday night but someone tipped them off.
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“They lay in ambush, hid their motorcycles in the shrubs, circled us and opened fire from different directions,” Sani, a retired soldier, said on Tuesday. He said 62 people had been killed.
Kebbi police spokesman Nafiu Abubakar confirmed the ambush but said he did not have details on how many people had been killed.
In January, dozens of gunmen on motorbikes ransacked a village and killed more than 50 people in Kebbi.
Buhari, who jetted out of the country on Sunday on yet another medical junket in London, said he was saddened by the killings.
A statement by his media aide, Garba Shehu on Tuesday which was made available to TheNiche, quoted Buhari as saying, “this egregious level of criminality is shocking and I want to assure Nigerians that I will do all it takes to tackle this monster decisively.
“My greatest preoccupation is the threat to life posed by these murderous gangs and remorseless outlaws who have no slightest regard for the sanctity of life.
“While extending my sympathy to the families of the victims of this savagery, let me use this opportunity to also call on our security forces to be more proactive and redouble their efforts in order to frustrate the operational plans of the terrorists before they even launch attacks.” the President added.