LEADERSHIP
Eleven persons have been confirmed dead in the arson carried out on Wednesday by a 38-year-old Shafiu Abubakar, who set a mosque on fire during the early morning prayer over inheritance dispute at Gadan village on the outskirts of Gezawa in Kano State.
About 40 worshippers were said to be praying when the arsonist ignited fire and locked them inside the mosque to deny them a chance to escape.
A resident of the village Rabiu Gadan, confirmed to LEADERSHIP that 11 people have so far died due to the burns they suffered and that the funeral of eight of them had already been conducted while the corpses of the remaining three were being prepared for burial on Thursday.
Rabiu said the attack was not Shafiu’s first violent outburst as he had previously assaulted two of his older brothers and then surrendered himself o the police claiming he had killed them.
Another resident, Malam Garba, said, “He has always been troubled, but when he challenged his family to give him his portion of the inheritance, they did. He was even taken to a mental institution once when he attacked his relatives but he was given a clean bill of health. So, he was clearly in his right mind when he set the fire, two of his uncles died and we buried them yesterday already.”
READ THE FULL STORY IN LEADERSHIP
