Feb. 8, 2023

The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), on Tuesday condemned the killing of 16 Nigerians travelling in Burkina Faso as unjustifiable, callous and criminal.

Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the Chairman/Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NiDCOM, condemned the killing in a statement signed by Mr. Abdur-Rahman Balogun, Head of Media, Public Relations and Protocols Unit, NiDCOM, Abuja.

The NiDCOM chair called on the Burkinabe authorities to fish out the perpetrators and prosecute them accordingly.

Dabiri-Erewa, who reiterated President Muhammadu Buhari‘s resolve to ensure “appropriate sanction” through diplomacy to those who were involved in the wicked killing, said it was a condemnable and barbaric act.

The NIDCOM boss joined others in condoling the families and friends of the deceased and prayed for the safety of other stranded Nigerians in the country.

“To those who were unjustifiably killed, especially as they were on spiritual pilgrimage, may Allah accept them into His martyrdom and quicken the pace of recovery of those injured survivors,” she prayed.

According to the statement, the commission recalls that some Muslim pilgrims, including 16 Nigerians, were allegedly shot and killed by Burkinabe soldiers on patrol.

At a news conference on Sunday in Abuja, the Jam’iyyatu Ansariddeen Attijaniyya of Nigeria revealed that 16 of its members were shot dead 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.

The national secretary of the Islamic group, Sayyidi Yahaya, said the Ansaruddeen members were “randomly selected and cold-bloodedly shot to death in a most horrendous display of bestiality” after being stopped by the Burkinabe soldiers.