From Yakubu Mustapha Minna
The Police has paraded the killers of 19 villagers including two policemen at Alawa in Shiroro local government area of Niger state.
The Force Public RelationS Officer, Jimoh Moshood who paraded the bandits at the Niger state Police Command today, said that the 11 bandits were responsible for razing down the Police Station at Alawa and killing two policemen.
He said that the bandits, who have been terrorising Tegina, Makera, Shiroro areas in Niger state and Zamfara state, have confessed to have kidnapped and killed 19 people including seven persons that were kidnapped in a Mosque in Shiroro local government area.
Force PPRO explained that the bandits were arrested by a Special Tactical Squad under Operation Absolute Sanity set up by the Inspector General of Police.
Investigation revealed that the suspects were once vigilantes in Alawa community of Shiroro local government area who turned to kidnapping when they saw it would be more profitable for them.
Questioning the leader of the gang, Lawal Kwali ‘Mai saje’, who said that he was not commissioned to kidnap and kill any Njody adding that ‘I killed them just like that. ‘
Kwali while accepting responsibility for the whole operation said, ‘what my boys did, the people they killed were done under my directive. I was not paid or commissioned for their kidnap or killing, I did it and gave the orders out of my own discretion.”
A suspect called Zakari Mamman while recounting a scenario where a father was pleading that his son was spared but they ended up killing both father and son adding that he worked at the directive of Kwali confessing that they buried the bodies of their victims in a secondary school in Alawa.
“I was the one who interviewed the seven people brought from the mosque, after interviewing them, we marked them for death. My master has those who specialize in slaughtering people, I only supervise the killings. There was a 12 year old child whose father pleaded that he should be spared but we slaughtered at the presence of the father before killing the father, ” he narrated.
