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Noah Ebije, Kaduna
No fewer than 50 people have been reported killed by gunmen suspected to be armed bandits in Kaduna communities at the weekend.
The communities are Kerawa, Rago, Marina, Zariyawa, Hashimawa, and Unguwar Barau villages, all of Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Kaduna State Police Command confirmed the incident but did not give casualty figure was as at press time.
The Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, ASP Muhammad Jalige said the casualty figure was yet unknown.
ASP Jalige said the contingent of the Commissioner of Police was on the way to the affected villages to assess the situation at the time of filing the report.
According to him, “yes, there was an attack. In fact, as we speak, I am in the entourage of the Commissioner of Police. We are going to the scene. When we come back, I will get back to you,” he said.
Meanwhile, sources from Igabi told our correspondent that, over 50 persons, including children, Almajiri, women and aged were hacked to death by the bandits.
The villagers said they bandits appeared like Boko Haram in the manner of operations.
A source from the area said the killers may have avenged attacks launched against them by the security forces who had earlier in the last few weeks bombarded the bandits’ camps in the neighbouring Birnin-Gwari local government area and killed scores of them.
According to the source, “if you remember, a few weeks ago, Policemen raided the bandits’ camp and killed over 200 of them. Soldiers and Air Force also attacked the bandits a few days ago and they also killed many of them. So, these people believe we are the ones giving the security operatives information about their movement and camps. Some of the villagers who escaped from the attackers said, the bandits were saying it in Hausa language that, the villagers were the ones reporting them to the security.
“I don’t live in any of those villages, but people often run from some of the villages to take refuge here. The villages have actually been suffering in the hands of the bandits for a long time. They invade the villages and kidnap people unchallenged. That is why they became the first suspects to the bandits.”
Meanwhile, the former Senator who represented Kaduna North Central, Shehu Sani has condemned the attack, saying that northern Governors are not living up to expectation over insecurity in the region.
In a statement, Senator Sani said, “the mass killings of innocent people in Kerawa village and surroundings in Kaduna state by suspected bandits stands unreservedly condemned.
“Northern Governors are still playing the ostrich, afraid of confronting the federal Government and taking independent action to protect their people while the killings and the kidnappings goes on.
“Northern Governors must come out with a regional security outfit to protect their people or continue to wait for Godot. The level of insecurity in the north has become infectious to the country and contagious to the West African sub-region.
“Killings and kidnappings have become a daily occurrences in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Niger state.
“The north has become a region of endless funerals and perpetual bereavement.
“Bandits in the North have become a state; they impose fines and taxes, send notices, control spaces, determine life and death and operate without much challenge.
“Banditry has further impoverished the North and turned it into a cemetery.
“The lives of ordinary people in the north has become cheap, dispensable, disposable and ordinary.
“The pervasive insecurity in the north is reinforced and sustained by the silence and sycophancy of its elites as much as the inaction of the Government.
“Muslims are not much being seen as victims of the killings in the north because many Islamic leaders prefer to massage the image of the Government in the face of the killings of their followers while Christian clerics are leading protests in the streets.
“The north must wake up, buckle up or perish.
“When our people are repeatedly and tragically killed or abducted and we speak out, the only response that comes from the Government and it’s hired agents is that we are ‘politicizing the issue of security.”
