Fear has gripped some residents of Zamfara State as members of the recently inaugurated Community Protection Guards (CPG) allegedly killed Magaji Lawal Salala, a political associate of Senator Kabir Marafa.
Salala was invited by members of CPG to their office in Tsafe town, the headquarters of the local government area on Saturday when the incident occurred.
Addressing newsmen after the funeral of the deceased, Marafa said he personally encouraged the late Salala to honour the invitation to hear the allegations levelled against him.
According to him, Salala died while in detention in the hands of the CPG in Tsafe office.
Marafa said blood was gushing from the mouth, ear and nose of the deceased.
He said the deceased was severely tortured by the guards who inflicted multiple injuries on him.
The lawmaker said an autopsy of the corpse had been done to ascertain what caused his death.
“From what we have seen, Magaji Lawal was allegedly killed by officials of the CPG as some of the people invited along with him were tortured and released,” he said.
According to him, the idea of the state government to establish the CPG is a welcome development to end the act of banditry.
“I am really in support of the government to fight banditry and ready to give necessary support to it, but my concern is the alleged recruitment of persons with questionable character”, he added.
He vowed to use the necessary channels to unravel the true circumstances that led to the death of Salala.