Governors in the North-east on Saturday donated N20 million to support families of victims of the October 17 Goronyo Market massacre in Sokoto. 

Chairman of the North-east Governors Forum, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno, who made the donation on behalf of his colleagues, 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.

Bandits had killed 43 persons at Goronyo Market in the eastern part of Sokoto on Sunday, October 17.

Mr Zulum was accompanied by Governor Muhammad Yahaya of Gombe State. 

Responding, Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal attributed the influx of bandits into his state to military operations in neighbouring Zamfara.

“The Federal Government should expand the military operations to other states in the Northwest in order to ensure lasting solution to address the menace of criminals.

“The Federal Government should also provide more fighting equipment for the security operatives to enable them to confront and curtail the bandits and other criminals,’’ he said.

Mr Tambuwal said he has 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 in view of concerns expressed by security outfits in the state that the outage was affecting the smooth conduct of their operations.

(NAN)