Terrorists have killed a councillor and a director of Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, after rejecting ransom offered for their release.
The chairman of the council, Yahaya Yari, disclosed this on Thursday.
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Mr Yari said Muslim Habibu, the councillor for the Jangebe ward, and Jamilu Sani, the council’s director of planning, were killed 10 days after their abduction.
They were seized by the terrorists while travelling from Jangebe to the local government headquarters over Hajj activities for intending pilgrims from Jangebe.
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The deceased and the council’s assistant revenue officer were driving from Jangebe to Mafara on 18 May when they were attacked by the terrorists on the Anka – Mayanchi highway. The revenue officer escaped with gunshot wounds, but the other two officials were captured.
“We began discussing ransom with them (terrorists) immediately after the abduction and at first, they made us believe they were serious,” Mr Yari said during a condolence visit to the families of the deceased in Talata Mafara on Thursday.
He said after days of negotiations, the terrorists began acting weird towards him and the negotiators.
“Later, they said anyone they abducted from Jangebe, they would not collect his money (ransom) because they would just kill him. To be honest with you, the last communication we had with them, they confirmed that they had been killed,” he added.
Salatul Gaib, an Islamic funeral prayer, was conducted for the deceased since their bodies could not be reclaimed.
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PREMIUM TIMES gathered from local sources in Talata Mafara that the terrorists were angry that the local government and Jangebe people armed a militia, Yan Sakai, and invited the Civilian Joint Task Force from the North -east to fight the terrorists.
“A year or so back, when the bandits pressurised the people of Jangebe, the chairman sat with the stakeholders of the ward and a decision was reached that Yan Sakai should be empowered with weapons to fight the bandits. A lot of their people (terrorists) were killed by our people (Jangebe), so that’s why they now say abducted people from Jangebe would be killed,” a government source who asked not to be named told this reporter over the phone on Friday.
Talata Mafara is in the western part of Zamfara that has become vulnerable to terrorists’ activities, especially on the main and secondary roads. The roads that have been constantly attacked by the terrorists include Mayanchi-Talata Mafara, Mayanchi-Anka-Gummi, and Danbaza-Maradun.
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