Police arrests three over gunshots

Three persons have been arrested after gunshots rang randomly Thursday at Bimbagu near Nakpanduri in the Northern region in what is suspected to be a spillover of a raging violence between two Bimoaba clans living in Sayeegu and Sabriluk.

Armed soldiers have been deployed to quell further escalations and diffuse tensions after alleged members of the Tanmung clan overwhelmed the village with gunfire to show anger and dissatisfaction at the way authorities were handling the murder of the Sayeegu Chief, their clansman.

The Sayeegu Chief together with his heir and other family member were gunned down in an ambush on his farmland in April this year when violence between the Tanmung and Boukteeb clans in Sayeegu and Sanbriluk erupted.

Starr News sources said the gunshots broke out after a meeting Thursday at the palace of the Bimbagu chief who is mediating the matter relating to the killing of the traditional ruler.

Sources said members of the Tanmung clan accused a man belonging to the Bouktab clan of murdering the chief and his family and hauled him before the chief of Bimbagu.

Already angered by the slow pace at which investigation into the killing of the clansman, members of the Tanmung clan left the palace unsatisfied. Gunshots were later heard blazing heavily across the village.

Starr News is yet to verify this account from the sources. The assembly member for the Nakpanduri South when contacted did not confirm or deny this account. There was no record of casualties or damage of properties.

Soldiers from the military camp in Nakpanduri were deployed and they secured the chief palace before a reinforcement of armed police men arrived.

Three persons were picked up by the security forces and have been sent to Bunkpurugu, the district capital.

The three are said to be those at the center of the misunderstanding that could not be resolved by the Bimbagu chief. The Bunkprugu Yunyoo district police commander ASP Delaport confirmed the gunshots.

Twenty-two people have been killed so far and many properties destroyed since fighting between the two clans in the two farming communities over land and chieftancy matters began.