Bandits killed 33 in our town within 1 week – Batsari youth

Youths from Batsari in Katsina State yesterday said bandits killed 14 people along the BatsariSafana Road in the state on Monday.

They said this was apart from the killings of 19 persons in their town in the last one week.

They demanded unconditional release of some vigilante members

arrested and detained by the police over the alleged killing of a suspected bandit.

The youths, under the umbrella of the Batsari Youths Forum, were protesting against incessant attacks by bandits on their town and neighbouring villages.

Their spokesman, Gali Iliyasu Batsari, said Batsari was fast becoming a “ghost town with people daily migrating for safety.

According to him, life has become unbearable for the locals due to daily invasion of bandits and criminals, who attack, kill and maim innocent people.

“This our protest is to draw attention of the federal and state governments to our plight, we are being killed daily with no commensurate action from government.

“What is more disturbing is the availability of combined security personnel in the town, if we reach them for assistance, they will say we have to wait for orders from above.

“Just last week, some of our vigilantes whom we rely upon were arrested by police over a killing of one suspected bandit, we see no reason why these people have been killing us and they don’t get arrested; but when we kill, our people are picked and locked up”, he said.

Reacting, the spokesman of the state police command, Gambo Isah, confirmed the arrest of the vigilante officers, saying that constitutionally, they have no right to take any life.

He said: “Our action is for the best interest of all, you can’t take law into your hands as stated in the constitution, and nobody should kill another person.

“They killed him on mere suspicion of being an informant, you cannot fight a crime with crime, we are investigating the circumstances surrounding the killing and subsequent attacks happening in the area.

“If we fold our arms and allow people to carry law into our hands, anarchy looms. We don’t want the crisis to lead us into a state of lawlessness.”