Zamfara governor reveals that mob who burnt 8 people to death were actually Muslim students

The Zamfara State Governor Abdulaziz Yari, yesterday narrated the gory details of how 8 people were burnt alive at Talata-Mafara, in his state.

Apart from the troubling tale of ‘false alarm’ which the governor said a student having disagreement with another student who is ‘Yoruba from Kogi state’ raised, details from the governor revealed that the ‘mob’ who ensured 8 lives were burnt to death were actually students of Abdu Gusau Polytechnic, Talata Mafara.

News of that gruesome incident was widely reported on Tuesday.

The governor was at the Presidential Villa Abuja, for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, after which he addressed State House correspondents.

He said,

“From the intelligence I heard from the security agencies, there was a fight between two students and I think one of them injured the other and started shouting that the other person abused Prophet Muhammed.

“Other students came and beat the other boy who is Yoruba and from Kogi State. Some people are saying he was a Muslim and some say the boy was a Christian. They beat the student until he collapsed and thought he was dead.

“Then security personnel requested help from one shop owner who then took the boy to the hospital in his car. When the students heard that the boy was still alive and in the hospital, they went to the hospital.  But the boy was rescued by the army in the hospital.

“Then the students went back to the polytechnic and burnt down the shop of the person who gave his car to rescue the boy.

“They went back to town again and as you know the police in the division don’t have enough men to contain the riot and before reinforcement came, the crowd threw tyre in the man’s house and burnt the house down.

“That was how everybody in the house was killed and everybody killed in the House were Muslims and not like the rumours going around in the social media that Christians are being killed in Zamfara.

“Infact the mob wanted to go and burn churches and attack non- Muslims but the security forces stopped them. It’s my home town and that’s where I live.”

The governor expressed his disagreement with the killers of the persons using ‘blasphemy’ as their excuse.

“The government will not take the issue of people taking the laws into their own hands lightly. You cannot say that whoever abused the Prophet should be killed when there is a government in place.

“There are laws and there are courts where Islamic laws are practiced in Zamfara. So, why should someone take laws into his hands? Definitely, all the culprits will be brought to book.”