Several locals have been killed by armed men suspected to be bandits during an attack on Tsafe town in Zamfara State.
The assailants were said to have invaded the town which is the headquarters of Tsafe Local Government Area of the state on Sunday night.
Neither the state government nor the police command in Zamfara has made an official statement regarding the incident.
But sources told Channels Television on Monday that the son of Mamman Tsafe, the Commissioner for Security and Home Affairs in Zamfara and a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), was among those reportedly killed in the town.
According to them, the attack was a reprisal following the killing of a man on Saturday by a local vigilante group known as ‘Yan Sa Kai” in Tsafe.
An eyewitness who preferred to be unnamed explained that the bandits invaded the town at about 8:30pm and began to fire sporadic gunshots to cause panic among residents.
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Thereafter, they were reported to have gone straight to the residence of the commissioner where they reportedly killed his son.
“We got the information that the bandits were gathering to attack Tsafe; they even invited some other groups in order to attack the town,” the witness said.
“My house is very close to the DIG’s house. While they were shooting at his house, a bullet dropped on my rooftop.
“So, the bandits attacked his (the commissioner’s) house, killed one of his sons and one boy – a relative of the chairman of the Local Government Service Commission (in Zamfara).”
When contacted by Channels Television on Monday, the Commissioner for Information in Zamfara, Ibrahim Dosara, did not respond to several calls put across to him while the police authorities say they would issue a press statement soon.
Sunday’s incident followed the killing of at least 13 persons by armed bandits in attacks on different communities in Anka Local Government Area of Zamfara.
The affected communities were Kadaddaba, Rafin Gero, and Babban Baye. While the police said 13 persons were killed in the attacks on Thursday last week, locals insisted that 15 people lost their lives.
