Senate Mourns 120 Nigerians Allegedly Killed By Bandits in Sokoto

Deji Elumoye

The Senate at plenary yesterday observed a minute silence as it mourned the alleged killing of over 120 Nigerians by bandits at the Gorony market in Sokoto State.

This was sequel to the adoption of a point of order raised on the incident by Senator Ibrahim Gobir, who claimed the victims were massacred by bandits on Sunday, October 17, 2021.

Coming under Order 43 – Personal Explanation – of the Senate Rules, Gobir said, “on Sunday, 17th October, 2021, Gorony market was attacked, and about 120 plus people killed.

“The terrorists came to the market and started shooting every person they saw in the market.”

He disclosed that in seven villages within some local government areas of the state, residents were compelled by bandits to pay levies between N1 million and N20 million.

Gobir listed the affected villages to include: Kwarangamba, Garki, Danadua, Katuma, Kurawa and Dama.

He lamented that failure to meet the demand imposed by the bandits in the affected areas had severally led to the killing of the villagers.

The ranking Senator expressed frustration that in spite of consistent pleas to security agencies to come to the rescue of the affected communities, nothing had been done so far by the military and police to intervene in the plight of the people.

He further disclosed that the failure of the military to come to the rescue of the villagers emboldened the terrorists to install their own representatives as village heads in some areas of Sabon-Girin Local Government.

According to him: “The terrorists are now installing their village heads in some areas of Sabin-Girin local government.

“In Gangara, they replaced the village head with Dan Bakkolo, the next in command to a known terrorists called Turji.

“In Makwaruwa, they installed Dan Karami (a terrorist) as Maigari”.