Gunmen on motorcycles have shot dead at least 15 civilians and injured many others in Sokoto State, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has confirmed, describing the killers as “bandits graduating into terrorists”.
The killings took place in the early hours of Monday and Tambuwal said 13 of the victims were killed in the town of Illela on the border with Niger Republic, while two others were killed in a separate attack in Goronyo.
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Tambuwal, who spoke through a statement by his spokesman Muhammad Bello, described the killings as callous.
He said “13 people were killed by the marauders in Illela, a town bordering Niger Republic, some 97 kilometers from the state capital while two people were murdered at Goronyo, 76 kilometers east of the state capital.
“The disparate attacks took place from Sunday night till the early hours of Monday,” Gov. Tambuwal said while presenting the state’s 2022 budget to the state House of Assembly (SOHA).
The Governor, who also later described the perpetrators as ‘bandits graduating into terrorists,’ while receiving participants of Course 44 of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC), appealed to the Federal Government to expedite action in order to checkmate the reign of brigandage in the affected areas of the state.
He stated that economic development is difficult to attain where there is insecurity no matter the financial resources available for such undertaking.
Last month bandits, in a dare-devil evening raid had killed 43 at Goronyo market.
