Suspected assassins have gunned down the Adamawa State Chairman of Tabital Pulaaku International, Alhaji Abdu Balli.

Tabital Pulaaku International, known fully in local parlance as Tabital Pulaaku Joondie Jam, is a pan-Fulani group.

The state government has strongly condemned Balli’s killing, pledging to use every legal instrument and resources available to the state to track down the killers and bring them to book.

The attackers who struck at the group leader’s residence in Yola town on Tuesday night, also killed a man who was identified as a visitor, and left another visitor critically injured.

Our correspondent gathered Tuesday morning that three gunmen stormed the Tabital Pulaaku chairman’s house in Lakare area of Yola town about 8:30 pm on Tuesday and opened gunfire on the man and his visitors, killing him and one of his two visitors and injuring the other.

A source said, “Alhaji was inside the house with two people who were on a visit when three armed men came shooting sporadically and entering the house. They killed Alhaji and one of the visitors while the other visitor was left badly injured.”

The Adamawa State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Sulaiman Ngurore, confirmed the incident Wednesday morning.

He said, “When we were alerted, we rushed there and found the Tabital Pulaaku chairman and his visitor lying in pools of blood. We took them and another visitor who was injured to the hospital where the chairman and his other visitor were confirmed dead.”

The PPRO added that men and officials from all relevant police units had been deployed to fish out the killers and have them prosecuted.

Responding to the killings, the state governor, Rt Hon Ahmadu Fintiri, said Wednesday afternoon that he was deeply touched that precious lives had been taken to cast a dark pall on the celebration of Nigeria’s 59th Independence Anniversary.

In s press statement released from Government House Yola and signed by the Director General, Media and Communications, Solomon Kumangar, Governor Fintiri condoled the families of the deceased and wished those injured quick recovery.

•Credit (excluding headline): The Nation.

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