Hoodlums kill three farming brothers in Katsina

Hoodlums at the weekend killed three brothers in their farm at Zakka village, Safana Local Council area of Katsina State.

The incident comes less than a month after over 30 people were slaughtered by bandits in three council areas of Danmusa, Faskari and Batsari.

The bodies of the trio were conveyed in two vehicles to the palace of the Emir of Katsina, Dr. Abdulmumin Kabir, yesterday evening accompanied by their aged mother and some sympathisers.

Though they could not have an audience with the monarch, palace officials however advised them to take the corpses away for interment.

Spokesman for the emirate council, Iro Bindawa conveyed the sympathy of the emir to the sympathisers.

He instructed the district head to forward an official letter on the incident to the palace.

Bindawa said: “His eminence has directed me to tell them that they should tell their district head to forward an official letter on the incident to the palace for onward dispatch to security operatives.

“The emir sympathised with them and advised that the corpses be taken to the village for proper burial.”

The police spokesman in the state, SP Gambo Isah, confirmed the incident, adding that the farmland where the attack took place was close to one of the bases of the bandits.

“The victims are of the same mother. Actually, four of them were in the farm when the bandits attacked them but one of them managed to escape,” he clarified.

Besides, the Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has called on South West governors to mobilise traditional rulers, youth groups and other interested bodies in collaboration with the military, police and the civil defence corps to comb all forests with a view to dislodging criminals from their hideouts.

They also urged the overhaul of the nation’s security architecture.

The Yoruba elders contended that except the service chiefs were sacked, the country would be freed from captivity.

YCE urged President Muhammadu Buhari to restructure Nigeria, stating that the country’s alleged faulty nationhood was breeding poverty and criminality.

Speaking yesterday in Ado Ekiti, the group’s Secretary, Dr. Kunle Olajide, pleaded with the president to treat with urgency the alarm raised by Afenifere that the South West region had allegedly been taken over by killer herdsmen and other criminal gangs.

Also yesterday, the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commission deplored the insecurity in the zone, charging security agencies to redouble efforts in ending the prevalent kidnapping, banditry and related ills.

It, however, applauded the region’s governors for convening a security summit to combat the challenge.

The commission’s Director General, Seye Oyeleye, in a statement, enthused that the spate of crimes would drop drastically in the area with the convocation of the summit this month end.

DAWN has been mandated by the governors to organise the event.