It was another tragic morning in Zamfara State, Tuesday, as some yet-to-be-nabbed bandits raided Ruwan Bore Village in Gusau Local Government, for hours at dawn, killing Hajia Sa’adatu Marafa, the elder sister of Kabir Marafa, senator representing Zamfara central.
The rampaging marauders also abducted her husband in the operation that started around 3a.am.
News of the attack was broken, via a press statement issued in Abuja by the senator’s personal assistant, Abubakar Abdullahi Tsafe, who disclosed that the bandits, numbering over 100, also set the village ablaze.
“More than half of Ruwan Bore village has been burnt by the bandits. The villagers are now seeking refuge at Mada, a neighbouring community,” Tsafe said in the release.
More tragic still, the deceased’s husband may not attend the burial of his late wife, in accordance with Islamic injunction, as he was yet to be released at the time of this report.
Zamfara State has been a hotbed of criminal activities for some time now. Criminal elements have held the state by the jugular through cattle rustling, armed robbery, abductions, and sundry others.
Last July, the situation became so serious and so frustrating for Governor Abdul’aziz Yari that he told Zamfara people that he had dropped his responsibility as Chief Security Officer of the state, saying he had no control over security apparatus of the state.
“As chief security officer, the nomenclature is just a name,” Yari had said.
While speaking at a town hall meeting in September 2018, Yari told the audience that at least 2,300 people had died as a result of the insecurity that had gripped the state since 2011.
Similarly distressed by the appalling security situation in Zamfara is Senator Marafa who had, on several occasions, both on the floor of the Senate and outside engagements, alerted the federal government on the security challenges crippling his state.
President Muhammadu Buhari, responded last November, and ordered a military crackdown on the bandits. Still, the killings never abated.
There were fears, Tuesday, that if the situation in Zamfara was not comprehensively addressed, the population of internally displaced persons in the country may swell.