The Bauchi State Police Command has confirmed a clash between youths in the border communities of Gamawa and Zaki local government areas of the state.
Three people died in the clash, with one shot with arrow in his eyes and ten others injured.
Bauchi Police Public Relations Officer Mohammed Ahmed Wakil made the confirmation, while speaking with reporters today in Bauchi.
He said that the situation was brought under control as security operatives have been drafted to keep the peace in the affected areas.
He said the clash was between the youths of Tarbuwa community in Zaki local government, which shares a boundary with Kubdiya community in Gamawa local government area,
“The two communities attacked themselves. The warring factions used various dangerous weapons such as bows and arrows, cutlass, sticks and others to attack each other leading to death and injuries on both parties.”
Wakil said that, “As a result, one Aliyu Idris of Kubdiya was shot in the eye with an arrow while Abdullahi Abdullahi, 38 years old, Waziri Garba, 26 years old, Ishau Alhaji, 25 years old, Umar 30 years old, Idris Abdullahi, 27 years old, Udu Abdullahi Yari, 36 years, Mohammed Goni, 31 years old, Hassan Zakari, 30 years old, Umar Idris, Ahmadu Hussaini Wagaji, Alhaji, 40 years old all of them of Kubdiya village were injured.”
He said that on receiving the report, the Commissioner of Police, Umar Mamman Sanda directed the Area Commander in Azare which is in charge of the affected LGAs to mobilize to the area in order to control the situation.
Wakil said the DPO and a number of policemen visited the affected areas and evacuated two of the victims to the General Hospital, Gamawa for treatment while two other victims were referred to the Federal Medical Center (FMC), Azare for further treatment.
He said that investigations have since commenced in order to unravel the circumstances that led to the clash assuring that anyone found culpable no matter his status will be arrested and prosecuted according to the laws of the country.
The police spokesman advised the people of the state to tolerate each other, live in peace and use every available peaceful means to resolve issues among them while the Police will continue to protect lives and properties of residents of the state.
He said that a suspect has been arrested in connection with the case whose name he gave as Umar Jibir, a 40 year-old man from Kubdiya village in Gamawa LGA.
Villagers from the communities said three people died while 10 were injured . They said the fracas came after a suspected armed youth group from Kubdiya attacked their neighbors from Tarbuwa village in which many injured
Another villager said “What happened was that some youths of Tarbuwa in Zaki local government stopped one member of Kubdiya who is on his way to his village and beat him up and burnt his motorcycle. He survived being killed by the Villagers as he jumped into the river”.
He said that, “This did not go down well with the people of Kubdiya but the District Head of Gamawa on hearing of the incident quickly went there and consoled the people appealed to them to take it as an act of Allah and let it go while efforts were made to amicably resolved the issue”.
He said that, “ the next morning, while the residents were on the farms doing their work, some irate Youths went on a revenge mission. The two communities engaged each other by the use of local arrows and even Dane guns and in the process, three lives were lost,”.
He also said that a high-powered committee was set up to restore normalcy in the area and to proffer solutions to avert future occurrences.
“The situation is bad, this long dispute among the two communities will not in any way help matters. Just recently, the area has been hit by flood, the people did not recuperate from that disaster and yet in another now’, he lamented.
He said that 10 people were injured at Kubdia and are currently receiving treatment at Gamawa General Hospital saying that security personnel have been dispatched to the area to restore normalcy has been restored.
