Governors in the North-East Governor’s Forum yesterday in Sokoto donated N20 million to support families of victims of the October 17 massacre, which occurred at Goronyo Market in the State.
This is contained in an issued statement by the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity to Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Muhammad Bello, in Sokoto.
Chairman of the forum, Governor Babagana Zulum, of Borno State, who made the donation on its behalf, expressed displeasure at the massacre.
“Our region, especially my state has in more than a decade, experienced a lot of challenges of insecurity occasioned by Boko Haram insurgency.
“As such we will continue to offer valuable counsel to Sokoto State and other northwest states currently experiencing the scourge of bandits and marauders”, he said.
Zulum, accompanied by Governor Muhammad Yahaya, of Gombe State, condoled with the government and people of Sokoto State over the attack.
Responding, Governor Tambuwal applauded the North-East Governors Forum for its kind gesture and assured that his administration would avail itself of the wealth of experience of its counterparts.
He attributed the influx of marauders into Sokoto State to military operations in neighbouring Zamfara, saying, “The Federal Government should expand the military operations to other states in the North-West in order to ensure a lasting solution to address the menace of criminals.
Tambuwal also said that Sokoto State had formally written to the Federal Government to suspend the blockade of telecommunications services earlier imposed on 14 local government areas of the State.
He said the call for the rescinding of the blockade became necessary because of concerns expressed by security outfits in the State that the outage was affecting the smooth conduct of their operations.
Recall that bandits shot and killed 43 persons at Goronyo market in the State, penultimate Sunday.
