200 gunmen storm Mailalle Market in Sokoto, kill 20

Tayo AFOLABI

About 200 gunmen believed to be bandits attacked Mailalle weekly market, in Sokoto state, opened fire and killed nothing less than 20 persons and injured many.

Eyewitnesses said, they saw the bandits carting away foodstuffs and setting houses ablaze.

They allegedly stopped at the only petrol station in the area and filled their motorcycles with petrol.

Confirming the attack, a former Commissioner and resident of the area Alhaji Jelani Danbuga, said the attackers numbering about 200 hundred stormed the weekly market on motorbikes and started shorting sporadically to scare traders.

He said that many traders and buyers were killed in the process, while others sustained injuries (women and children).

Danbuga further said, the attackers took advantage of mobile telecommunication shutdown in the eastern  part of sokoto to carry out their ungodly act without being challenged by the security operatives.

Many believed the attack was a reprisal from what happen on Thursday in Mammande Village of Gwadabawa local government where more than 10 Fulani herder were killed by suspected self acclaimed vigilantes on a similar weekly market last Thursday.

The eastern part of Sokoto bordering Zamfara state has become a battle ground for bandits, security operatives and government recognized vigilante groups.

It’s now common to see a young man with a locally fabricated single and double barrel gun in all the 8 local governments areas that made Sokoto east senatorial District.

More than 700 people were killed since cattle rustling and banditry activities surfaced in the area in June 2019.