Kaduna State government and the Kaduna State Police Command have debunked claims made by Kano State Government that 16 of its indigenes from Dambatta Local Government Area Council were killed by unidentified gunmen in the state.
Kano State Government had said the deceased died on the Abuja-Kaduna Highway on Thursday as a result of an attack from unidentified gunmen.
But in separate reactions, the Kaduna State government and the police command have registered disagreement with the position of Kano State government.
The Kaduna State Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said on Friday that the statement credited to Kano State was incorrect and misleading as the Kano indigenes perished in a road accident and were not killed by gunmen on the Kaduna-Abuja Road.
Similarly, the Kaduna State Police Public Relations Officer, Muhammad Jalige, said in a statement that the travellers were involved in a fatal road accident at the Rigachukun area along the Kaduna-Zaria expressway after the driver of the commercial hummer bus conveying the travellers lost control and the vehicle fell into a ditch.
“The Command expresses its deepest condolences to the government and good people of Kano State on the unfortunate incident and prays that may God in his infinite mercy repose the souls of the deceased and give their immediate family the fortitude to bear the irreparable lost.
“It is with the deepest sense of responsibility that the command is responding to the misinformation making round in public domain attributing the unfortunate incident to killing by unknown gunmen,” the command spokesman said.
According to Jalige, nine passengers died on the spot while 10 others who sustained varying degrees of injuries were immediately rushed to a hospital in Kaduna metropolis.
He noted that seven more passengers who were critically injured died while receiving treatment at the medical facility.
The command’s spokesman confirmed that a total of 16 people lost their lives from the accident, while three persons survived and were being treated.
“The command, by this release, states the facts as it happened and implore the general public to discontinue the attribution of this painful loss of life to banditry as its received the news the shocking incident with empathy but needed to make the clarifications on the matters bothering on national security to allay the fears and apprehension the misleading information must have put in the minds of people and road users,” he added.