Suspected armed bandits at the weekend killed 16 people and injured 18 others at Dumama community in Zurmi Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara State.
The lawmaker representing Zurmi/Shinkafi in the House of Representatives, Husseini Moroki, confirmed the report to journalists.
“Just yesterday (Friday) by the time election materials were being distributed, I was at Zurmi INEC office where I got a report that there is an incident of banditry attack at Dumama community.
“Sixteen people were killed while 18 sustained high degrees of injuries; four among them have been referred to Federal Medical Centre Gusau,” Moroki said.
He said the attack caused panic among residents and it was resolved among the political parties and the electoral commission to move the polling units in the area to secure places within the Zurmi LGA.
The attack in Zurmi is coming less than a week after over 30 local businessmen returning from a market in Shinkafi LGA were ambushed and killed by suspected armed bandits.
The lawmaker said despite the attack on the eve of the election, the turnout was impressive in the area.
“I went round to over 90 per cent of the polling unit. I saw how people are conducting themselves in an orderly manner in obedience to the officials conducting the election.
“The process is satisfactory, I noticed something very imperative which is the voters’ turnout, it increased significantly above the presidential and parliamentary elections,” Moriki said.
The attacks in Zamfara have continued despite the reinforcement of many security units by the federal government.
Whiling commenting on the issues of insecurity in Zamfara, the defenCe minister, Mansur Dan-Ali, on Saturday, shortly after casting his vote at his hometown in Birnin Magaji, said the federal government was looking forward to establishing a helicopter landing base at either Birnin Magaji or Shinkafi LGA so that any time there are security concerns, the helicopters can be used for surveillance.
“You can’t have all what you want at a time. There’s no nation that is 100 per cent secured.
“We’re facing the insecurities challenges in the country adequately and squarely with the innovation of President Muhammadu Buhari because he has the political will and he intends to see that everywhere in this country is well secured,” Dan-Ali said.
He also called on people to play their own part in securing their lives and property, saying security is everybody business.
“We don’t expect the soldiers or the police to come and guard your own home, in those days where we have local guard securing our communities notifying suspicious movement of people and reporting to the traditional rulers, we need to revive that pattern for our home security,” he said.