Vice-President Namadi Sambo
By Chuks Okocha, John Shiklam and Mohammed Aminu
Kaduna State Police Command Tuesday said it had arrested two people in connection with Monday’s attack on Vice-President Namadi Sambo’s family house in Tudun-Wada area of Zaria, Kaduna State.
The arrest, however, came on a day Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State Tuesday condemned the bomb attacks on the private home of Vice-President Namadi Sambo in Zaria, Kaduna State and the zonal police headquarters of Zone 10 at Marna area and Unguwar Rogo Police Station in the Sokoto metropolis.
The second suspect, according to the Kaduna State Police Command, was also said to be have been killed in a cross fire between the police and a robbery gang.
The Acting Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state Police Command, Balteh A. Abdulrazaq, who confirmed the arrest in Zaria, said the suspect was arrested on a hospital bed where he was receiving treatment from gunshots.
Though the police did not disclose the name of the hospital, Abdulrazaq said one of the suspects who sustained injuries from gunshot during a gun battle with policemen guarding Sambo’s house was identified on a hospital bed by one of the policemen who was injured during the attack and was subsequently arrested.
“One of the policemen was able to identify one of the four robbery suspects we arrested this morning (yesterday) in Zaria as one of the suspects in the attack on the Vice-President’s house, one of the robbery suspects was killed in a cross fire by our men,” he said.
Also reacting, Wamakko in a statement signed by the state’s Commissioner for Information, Alhaji Nasir Danladi Bako, said he was sadness by the heinous act, which he said, was rather disturbing given the fact that it occurred during the holy month of Ramadan.
“The security operatives are in control of the situation and the state government hereby advises all and sundry to go about their normal businesses,” the statement read.
Following the attacks, the state government said it had donated N100, 000 to the families of those injured in the bomb blast.
Already normalcy has returned in the Sokoto metropolis, as people were seen going about their daily activities.
Meanwhile, Atiku while reacting to the latest attacks in Sokoto, Kano, Maiduguri, Zaria and Damaturu in a statement by his media office in Abuja, said he was even more troubled by the fact that the attacks were happening during the month of Ramadan.
The former Vice-President expressed outrage at the intensification of violence and attacks on holy places such as mosques and churches during the month of Ramadan, questioning the rationale for such destruction of lives and property.
He said the attacks were contrary to the known teachings of Islam and other established religions, which placed high premium on the sanctity of life.
According to him, the latest attacks on Sokoto, the attempted assassination of the Shehu of Borno and Borno State Deputy Governor were completely counter-productive to the interest of peace in the country.
He expressed regret that the attacks were coming at a time government had relaxed the state of emergency in violence-prone states to reduce the hardships of innocent Nigerians.
Atiku further added that what the attackers should have done was to take advantage of the lifting of state of emergency in those areas and go into dialogue rather than subjecting innocent Nigerians to further sufferings.
According to him, indiscriminate violence creates more confusion rather than solving any problem, adding that there was no alternative to dialogue.
Atiku appealed to all the groups unleashing this violence to consider the sufferings of innocent people who have lost lives, property or their means of livelihood in the wake of these attacks.
He called on well meaning leaders to join hands with the government in the quest to break the impasse and reverse the state of insecurity in the country.