According to a report by Vanguard, when Muslims all over the world celebrate Eid-Fitr, next week, their counterparts in Daura, Katsina State, the birth place of President Muhammadu Buhari, will not be part of it.
Reason: The Daura Emirate Council has suspended all activities lined up to mark the Sallah celebration in the emirate due to insecurity.
This came as Northern Governors, yesterday, met behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential villa, Abuja, where they lamented that banditry and kidnapping in the region were becoming more threatening than Boko Haram insurgency.
Also, the Presidency said yesterday that it could not guarantee whether or not the President Buhari administration will put an end to the Boko Haram insurgency. Some parts of Katsina have remained hotbeds of banditry, killings and kidnapping in recent times claiming scores of lives.
Indeed, 34 people were, last week, murdered in some parts of the state by unknown gunmen, an incident which made the state government to assent to a law that prescribed capital punishment for kidnapping, cattle rustling and armed robbery.
The district head of Daura, Alhaji Musa Umar-Uba, was recently kidnapped at his residence in Daura by unknown gunmen and since the incident, no contact was made with him or his abductors and the ancient town has been gloomy.
Malam Abdulmumini Salihu (Danejin Daura) made the disclosure on behalf of the emirate council in a statement issued in Daura, yesterday. Salihu said that the suspension of the Sallah activities was due to the recent security breaches bedeviling some parts of the state.
He said the recent happenings which led to the kidnap and brutal killings of some innocent citizens of the state were saddening and unfortunate. The emirate said it would use the period to commiserate with the government of the state, citizens and victims’ relations over the unfortunate development.
It added that during the day, only two raka’at Eid prayers would be observed after which marathon prayers and supplication would be conducted to invoke divine intervention over the precarious security challenges.
The council, however, directed all the 16 district heads, 245 village heads and ward heads, to organize and supervise prayers in their areas of jurisdictions, with a view to achieving lasting peace and stability nationwide.
