By Fatima Zahra Muhammad
ASHENEWS reports that the Katsina State government has set up a commission of inquiry over the killing of 41 local vigilantes in the Yargoje forest in the Kankara local government area of Katsina State by armed bandits.
This online platform reports that the vigilantes from 11 communities in the local government area were confirmed dead on Thursday by the Katsina State Police Command.
Reports indicate that the unfortunate incident happened on Wednesday when the bandits attacked the Kandarawa community and rustled over 50 animals.
The vigilantes had run into an ambush while attempting to recover the rustled animals from the bandits.
Speaking to journalists in Katsina on Saturday, the Special Adviser to the Katsina State government on Security Matters, Ahmed Ibrahim-Katsina said that the state government has also directed the deployment of additional security personnel to the area.
“The government is already on top of the situation in the area and we want to assure residents of the state that the government places a high priority on their security and safety.“From the strategies that we are adopting, we strongly believe that this incident will be the last in the state,” he said.
According to Ibrahim-Katsina, preliminary investigations revealed that some of the corpses recovered belonged to some of the bandits as against earlier reports that all were vigilantes.
“We want to unravel the full circumstances surrounding the incident apart from what the preliminary investigation has revealed,” he added.
