The killers of 19 villagers and two policemen in Alawa In Shiroro local government area of Niger state have been arrested by the Police.
The Force Public Relation Officer, Jimoh Moshood while parading the bandits at the Niger state Police Command said that the 11 bandits were responsible for razing down the Police Station at Alawa and killing two policemen.
He added that the bandits, who have been terrorising Tegina, Makera, Shiroro areas in Niger state and Zamfara State, have confessed to have kidnap and killed 19 people including seven people that were kidnapped in a mosque in Shiroro local government area.
Moshood added that the bandits were arrested by a special Tactical Squad under Operation Absolute Sanity set up by the Inspector General of Police.
It was gathered that the suspects were once vigilantes in Alawa community of Shiroro local government area who turned to kidnapping when they saw it would be more profitable for them.
Questioning the leader of the gang, Lawal Kwali ‘Mai saje’, he said that he was not commissioned to kidnap and kill any NJ ody adding that ‘I killed them just like that. ‘
Accepting responsibility for the whole operation, Kwali said, ‘what my boys did, the people they killed were done under my directive. I was not paid or commissioned for their kidnap or killing, I did it and gave the orders out of my own discretion.”
One of the suspects, Zakari Mamman recounted a scenario where a father was pleading that his son was spared but they ended up killing both father and son adding that he worked at the directive of Kwali confessing that they buried the bodies of their victims in a secondary school in Alawa.
“I was the one who interviewed the seven people brought from the mosque, after interviewing them, we marked them for death. My master has those who specializes in slaughtering the people, I only supervise the killings. There was a 12 year old child whose father pleaded that he should be spared but we slaughtered the son at the presence of the father before killing the father. “
An lucky victim identified Lawal Kwali and his team as vigilantes in his community saying that he and his brother were kidnapped on their way from the market and were released after his people paid a ransom of N350, 000.
