Residents of six villages in the state have reportedly been thrown into mourning following the murder of their relatives by bandits.
The bandits were said to have killed scores of villagers while their operation lasted.
The Press Secretary to Governor Bello Matawalle, Jamilu Magaji, confirmed the attacks in a statement issued last night.
Magaji said the bandits attacked villages in two Local Government Areas (LGAs) of the state.
He named the villages as Damaga, Jihiya, Shandame, Gidan Runji and Daki Hudu all in Maradun LGA.
According to him the sixth village attacked was Kizara in Tsafe LGA.
Magaji said Governor Bello Matawalle had to cut short his visit to Sokoto to attend to the ugly development.
According to Magaji, Matawalle condemned the attacks.
“The governor has visited Maradun town to sympathise and condole with the families of those who died as a result of the attacks.”
He also directed security agencies in the state to evolve better ways of curtailing bandits in the state.” Magaji said.
The statement noted that the governor had sent a delegation, led by the deputy governor, Mahadi Gusau, to Tsafe to sympathise with the victims of the attack in Kizara village.
This attack happened days after Matawalle, who has been dialoguing with bandits, gave a two- month ultimatum to recalcitrant bandits to surrender their weapons and embrace his administration’s peace initiative or face the consequence.
He had said, “As a further push to bring to an end the activities of the recalcitrant bandits so as to bring lasting peace to the state, the recalcitrant bandits have been given two months from today within which to embrace the peace process and surrender their weapons to the government.”
The government also banned motorcycles travelling in large numbers in the state just as the Federal Government deployed 6,000 troops to the state among other efforts to curb banditry and sundry criminality.
