President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has condemned the massacre of 34 villagers at Mafa in Tarmuwa Local Government Area of Yobe State.
Commiserating with the government and the people of Yobe, President Tinubu, in a statement by Presidential Spokesperson, Ajuri Ngelale, “also extends his condolences to bereaved families, and condemns the killings as an atrocious and cowardly act of terror by a degraded group of criminals.
“The President prays for the repose of the souls of the deceased, speedy recovery for the wounded, and assures the people of Yobe State that the perpetrators of this sinister act will have an inevitable encounter with justice.”
The Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist group has already claimed responsibility for the attack that led the killing of 34 villagers in Mafa, Yobe State around 4pm, on Sunday. They also set houses and shops on fire.
In a letter written in Arabic and released by the insurgents, the insurgent group claimed responsibility for the attack.
It said the village was attacked for allegedly providing information to the military, which led to the killing of its members.
“This is a message from the soldiers of the Caliphate in the West Africa Province to the leaders, mukhtars, and the rest of the residents and farmers in the town of Mafa and the villages around it.”
“You have been tempted to remain in your countries in safety. The soldiers of the Caliphate will not harm you, nor threaten you with your money, nor hinder you from any activity of yours, whether agriculture, trade, etc., until you have arrogantly raised yourselves to a position in which you believe that your hands will reach our brothers with harm and remain uninterrupted.
“You have harmed our brothers in the past days in the town of (Bangaro) and its environs, and you cooperated and sympathized with the apostates in killing our brothers, and when we arrived in the area, we did not harm you.
“Rather, we limited ourselves to those whose hands were stained with the blood of our brothers, and who were attacked by their weapons, according to the information we found. We thought that by doing so we had warned you with the language of war, hoping that you would be deterred.
“However, this increased your arrogance and arrogance, so you repeated the same crime in the month of Safar.”