•How 35 miners lost their lives
•Over 300 killed in two years
•As survivors recount ordeal

From Mohammed Munirat Nasir, Gusau

After the October 1, 2011 attack on a community in Zamfara State by armed bandits, which left 19 persons dead, villages and towns in the Dansadau axis of the state have continued to witness incessant attacks by rustlers and armed bandits. The ugly incident has made it madeit difficult for the people of the area who are predominantly farmers, to go to their farms.
As at the last count, over 300 persons, including District and Village Heads, have been killed by either cattle rustlers or armed bandits, the latest being the killing of 35 illegal miners by armed bandits, last Monday.
In one operation on April 5, 2014, to be precise, armed bandits wiped out over 100 persons. From November 2015 to January 2016, the bandits also killed 76 others.
Sadly, majority of these killings, including the one of last Monday occurred in the Dansadau axis of the State.
Monday’s attack, Saturday Sun learnt, was coming less than five months after a similar attack during which armed bandits invaded Madada, Katoge and Kukar Mago all in Dansadau Emirate, leaving over 3,000 persons displaced.
Some of the survivors who are currently receiving treatment at the Ahmad Sani Yariman Bakura Specialist Hospital [ASYBSH] Gusau, in an interview with the Saturday Sun, disclosed that the bandits, numbering about 50 came to the mining site on motor bikes, and immediately began to shoot anyone in sight, including miners and gold merchants.

SURVIVORS SPEAK
Muratala Hussaini from Bungudu Local Government Area is one of the victims who escaped with bullet wounds. He said he and others were in one of the many tunnels digging when they heard the sound of  helicopter landing, and few minutes later, they heard those working outside the tunnels shouting come out, thieves are around.
“I and the four others in our tunnel tried to come out but when we began to hear the sound of gun shots, we became confused and could not come out of our tunnel. The bandits came to the entrance of our tunnel and fired several shots into the tunnel. I was hit four times on my chest and stomach, while another bullet hit me on my hand. We fell down and the bandits thought we were all dead. They left for another tunnel and did same thing and by the time I came out, I was semi- unconscious, I saw many people dead,” he recounted.
Another survivor, Lawali Hussaini from Yamusawa Village in Kauran Namoda local government, also receiving treatment at the hospital, said he and two others were working inside the tunnel when they heard people outside the tunnel shouting. He tried to come out but could not as bullets kept flying around their tunnel.
He said that the bandits never noticed the tunnel in which he and two others were hiding, so no gun shot was fired inside the tunnel and after staying for more than one hour and by the time the shooting stopped, they miners came out and took to their heels.
He further said: ”I ran into the bandits inside the bush. When I first saw them, I thought they were security personnel because they were in uniforms. One of them hit me with a cutlass on my head and threatened to shoot me dead if I tried to run away. I began to beg them to spare my life because I was in the mining site to look for my daily bread. They asked me to see their boss who asked me if I was a member of the vigilante called ‘Yansakai’, I said I don’t have a single charm not to talk of being a member of the Yansakai group, the boss assured me that I would not be killed but suddenly they were informed that soldiers were approaching and they escaped into the forest and in the process, one of them shot me in the leg.”
Dr Abidemi Oyaromade, Head of the Clinical Services of the hospital, said all the four persons that were injured and brought to the hospital, were recuperating well, but that one of the victims died before he was brought in.
Oyaromade said one of the three treated at the hospital had been discharged while the remaining two are in stable condition.

GOV, LG BOSS, OTHERS SPEAK ON THE ATTACK
The Acting Governor of Zamfara State, Malam Ibrahim Muhammad Wakkala, has since ordered immediate investigation into Mondays’s deadly attack, which he described as sad and inhuman.
In a statement by his Press secretary, Yusuf Idris, the acting governor noted that the decision was taken after the state emergency security meeting in Gusau, the state capital.
“It is very unfortunate the way some criminals embark on killing of innocent people despite the efforts by the state and federal government to address security challenges in the state. I am therefore, appealing to the people to remain calm and cooperate with security agencies to restore peace and stability in the area and the entire state,” the statement read.
The Chairman of Maru Local Government Council, Alhaji Salisu Dangulbi, also said that members of staff of the council were still assisting security agents in their investigation.
Nura Hussaini of Yamusawa village in Kaura  Nomada local government area of Zamfara state, who was one of those who lost relatives in the Monday’s deadly attack, said  he lost two of his uncles, one of whom is the Village Head of Yamusawa.
He described the onslaught by the armed bandits as one attack too many, considering the frequency of the occurrences. To this end, he called on the government to take proactive measures to curb the trend and prevent further loss of innocent lives in the state.
“Government should as a matter of urgency take actions that will prevent families from suffering and crying. In my family alone, in this last attack, we lost two uncles and my senior brother is in the hospital receiving treatment from injuries he sustained in the attack. Although what happened might stop people from going to the illegal mining sites just for some time, after a while, they will return because that is their only means of livelihood,” he said.
Hussaini is not the only person worried by the lack of adequate security in the state. Alhaji Ya’u Muhammad Dansadau, the Chairman of  Dansadau Farmers Cooperative Association, in Maru Local Government area of Zamfara State, is also one of them. He said the incessant attacks by the bandits was not only affecting the illegal miners but responsible for the declining state of farming activities in the area and other parts of the state.
“The bandits are making most of our farmers to abandon the farms for the fear of being attacked or killed. The situation is so bad that most people, particularly those of us in the Dansadau Emirate now sleep with one eye close, because the attack can happen anytime,” he said.
He described the perpetrators of the attacks as enemies of the state who are bent on bringing the state and indeed, the North to its knees. He called on government to as a matter of urgency, take drastic actions that will help elimination of banditry in the Dansadau emirate and all parts of the state.
“There is the need for government to establish schools, both Islamic and western schools in the remote parts of the state because the attacks are being carried out by those who do not know the value of life due to illiteracy. No educated person who understands the teachings of the religion and modernisation will engage in senseless killing of fellow human beings,” he said.
Dansadau also tasked the people to inculcate the culture of community policing by observing and reporting suspicious people or movements to the security agency, who would take step to stop crime from taking place in the society.