Nine Traders Reportedly Killed By Gunmen In Katsina

Gunmen suspected to be bandits on Sunday evening reportedly killed nine traders along Jibia/Batsari Road in Katsina State.

Residents reported that the traders were returning to their community from a local market in Jibia when they ran into the gunmen around 6 p.m.

It was learnt that the traders were being conveyed in two vehicles which the gunmen also burnt.

A resident who spoke on condition of anonymity said, “The traders left the market early enough after their trading on Sunday only for them to run into the gunmen between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. along Jibia/Batsari Road.”

Residents said the gunmen shot into the two vehicles conveying the traders, killing one of the drivers and the traders on the spot.

The gunmen also reportedly burned down the two vehicles the traders were travelling in.

Residents further disclosed that sympathisers later deposited the corpses of the victims at the Jibia General Hospital, where their relatives picked them up on Monday morning.

The number of traders wounded in the accident and those abducted could not be ascertained as pf Monday afternoon.

The state Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Nasiru Muazu, has yet to react to the incident.

The spokesman for the state police command, ASP Abubakar Aliyu, was also said to be at a meeting, and he had yet to respond to the SMS sent to him on the incident.

Meanwhile, Governor Dikko Radda, however, maintained that there was relative peace in the state, attributing it to the efforts of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies in the state.