The 82-year old district head of Balle, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu, has been killed by suspected armed bandits.
Balle is the headquarter of Gudu local government area of Sokoto state which had been peaceful before Tuesday’s attack.
The bandits who, according to a witness account, came on six motorcycles set the divisional police headquarter in the area, patrol cars and some personal vehicles on fire.
They also gunned down an unidentified policeman along Karfen Sarki area.
Another witness told Daily Trust that the attackers invaded the area around 4pm on Tuesday and continued wrecking havoc until some minutes after 5pm.
“The whole area was thrown into commotion with people fleeing into the nearby bush for safety including my wives and children,” he said.
A health worker in the area who sought for anonymity said the attackers stormed the house of the district head after setting the police station on fire.
“They scaled through the fence of the house because it was locked, dragged the district head, who was at the time resting in his room, outside and shot him dead,” he stated.
“It is like they came with a mission to attack the station and kill the district head and we are suspecting they were led by an insider who is conversant with the area because this is the first time we experienced such an attack,” he added.
He refuted that the district head was slaughtered by the bandits, saying they shot him in the head.
“I met him lying in the pool of his blood, reciting Kalmat before he finally died,” the witness said.
Daily Trust learnt that normalcy has been restored in the area by the combined security forces that arrived in the night while the deceased was buried in accordance with the Islamic rites.
The late district head was survived by two wives, eight children and many grand children.
A lawmaker representing the area at the State House of Assembly, Alhaji Faruk Balle, who confirmed the attack, said they were all shocked because Balle used to be the most peaceful area in the state.
He called on the government to take decisive measures that would end banditry in the country.
Daily Trust could get the reaction of the police as its spokesman, DSP Muhammad Sadiq, was not picking calls made to his mobile line.
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