Group holds mass protest in Abuja over Zamfara killings

A group, under the aegis of Concern Citizens (CC), today, held a massive protest in Abuja, over incessant killings by armed bandits in Zamfara State.

The group, which comprised of mostly youth and women in their hundreds, converged at the unity fountain carrying placards with different inscriptions such as “Mr.  President, end the killings, end the kidnappings, end poverty, declare state of emergency, support IDPs” and others.

Speaking with newsmen, the convener of the protest, Fatima Mustapha, said the group decided to embark on a peaceful protest in order to condemn the incessant killings of innocent lives by armed bandits in Zamfara State.

She said it has become necessary to match for the victims of Zamfara killings since both the state and federal government had not been able to take urgent and drastic action to tame such killings.

She said a lot of lives were being lost on daily basis due to either bandits attack or kidnappings and nothing had been done by relevant government bodies, which prompted the group to come together through the social media to converge in Abuja, in order to draw attention of the federal government to take urgent action.

“It is quite unfortunate that a lot of blood of innocent souls are being lost on daily basis in Zamfara State and nothing is being done about it. And we feel, as a group of concern youth and women, we decided to come together from our various states of the federation to converge here in Abuja to tell the government that enough is enough”, she said.

She called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara State and provide shelter for the displaced victims of Zamfara attacks.

Also speaking, a member of the protesters, Mohammed Mukhtar Nadama, a native of Gusau, Zamfara state, said some parts of communities in Zamfara State had been taken over by armed bandits for over seven years, where they killed at will without any action being taken by either the state or federal government.

He said despite the daily killings of people by armed bandits, there was no any Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camp that was either being managed by the federal or state government, saying some of the IDPs camps were set up by either emir, individuals or philanthropists.

Nadama called on the federal government to declare a state of emergency on the state, if the state government failed to take urgent action to contain the situation.