Suspected Murderers Arrested in Zamfara

oct 5, 2011 – The Governor of Zamfara State, Abdul’Aziz Yari, on Monday said police in the state have arrested 7 people suspected of being involved in a weekend raid on a village that left 19 people dead.

Dozens of attackers armed with guns and machetes, on Saturday, raided Lingyado, a remote farming and herding village, killing at least 19 people, wounding six others and burning homes.

Addressing reporters in his office in the state capital, Gusau, Yari said the state police chief informed him of the arrests.
Earlier, the police revealed that the pre-dawn attack was in reprisal for the extra-judicial killings of suspected robbers some months ago by local vigilante groups formed by the villagers to end the spate of robberies in the area.

According to them, those who survived the vigilante onslaught regrouped and started reprisal attacks including the Saturday raid.

“From information I have received, the attackers who are nomadic Fulani invited their comrades from as far as the Central African Republic for the raid,” Yari said.

The governor, however, noted that the search for the attackers was being hampered by terrain that was inaccessible to even all-terrain vehicles.

“We may possibly request for helicopters from the police headquarters in Abuja in the hunt for the attackers who ride on motorcycles, making it easier for them to move despite the bad terrain,” Yari said.

The attack has led to a mass exodus of villagers in the area to other areas they consider safe. Daily Times