FG Summons Burkina Faso Envoy Over killing of Nigerian Pilgrims

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Zubairu Dada, on Thursday, summoned the Burkina Faso envoy to Nigeria, Pascal Gouba, over the gruesome murder of 16 Nigerians who were on a pilgrimage to Kaolak, Senegal over a month ago.

This was contained in a statement signed by the Special Adviser on Media, HMOS, Ibrahim Aliyu.

The Jam’iyyatu Ansariddeen Attijaniyya of Nigeria revealed that 16 of its members were shot dead allegedly by the Burkinabe soldiers on patrol.

They were reportedly on their way to the home country of their leader, Sheikhul-islam Ibrahim Niasse in Senegal, when they met their untimely death.

Dada stated that the envoy was called to explain in detail what really happened when these 16 Nigerians were brutally killed allegedly by some members of the Burkinabe military.

He said Nigerians were agitated by the incident and were calling for a faster and comprehensive response from the Government of Burkina Faso.

The Minister expressed dismay over what he described as unnecessary delay to find out the truth about the ugly incident.

He said, “Families of the victims are asking questions and therefore the need to hasten the investigation already started by the Burkinabe government.

“Nigeria will not fold its arms and see its citizens being killed or violated anywhere in the world.”

Gouba who first commiserated with the families of the victims as well as the government and the people of Nigeria over what he described as unfortunate incident said they understood the pains that the families of the deceased were going through.

He said investigation had already commenced to fish out the actual perpetrators of the killing by the Burkinabe government and that his country was ready to work with a team of experts from Nigeria to unravel what really happened.

Gouba, while reiterating his country’s total commitment to the investigation, said preliminary results had shown that terrorists harbouring the area were responsible for the killings as the area was a no-go-area for both the military and civilian population due to the activities of insurgents.