Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin-Kebbi
About four members of the Association of the Commercial Motorcycle Operators in Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi state capital have been killed by suspected thieves within three months.
The Chairman of the Association, Malam Nafi’u Zaki who confirmed thison Monday in Birnin Kebbi while speaking with newsmen, noted that, for the past one year and six months, they have not recorded such incident until recently.
According to him, , “From May to date , we have lost four of our members ; one in May and the other three within this month, and all were from Birnin Kebbi Local Government Area. On July 6, our member from Gumi LGA of Zamfara State was killed by the thieves in Makera community of Birnin Kebbi LGA.
“On July 9, a member named, Yasir Dayyabu, from Talatar Mafara, Zamfara State was also killed by the thieves. On July 12, another one named, Samaila Birnin Kebbi was also killed by the thieves, all within this month.
“The first one we had after one year and six months without any record of killing our member was in May, this year, victim name was Bashir Gwadangaji. They were manhandled , waylaid and sometimes strangled or stabbed to death.”
While speaking on the strength on his association, he disclosed that they have registered 37,000 while 80 percentage of them were from neighbouring villages and villages.
“Our members have so far reached 37,000 in our register ; most of them were from neighbouring villages and states, and 80 per cent of them are not the sole owners of the motorcycles, they all have masters,” he said.
Zaki called on the State Government and security agencies to come to the rescue of the association by tackling the menace and warned members of the association against taking law into their hands when such cases of snatching occurred.