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– Death toll hits 36
– Over 50 houses burnt
– Communities deserted
– Government keeps mute
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From John Adams, Minna
After more than three hours of rampaging by gunmen suspected to be from the Boko Haram sect in the Tungan Makeri and Nkpaso communities, Konkoso Ward of Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, the entire communities are littered with bodies of those killed during the invasion.
The death toll, according to community sources, has risen from 26 as of Saturday morning to 36 on Sunday, even as they said some people are still missing. Those killed were mostly men.
“As of this morning (Sunday), we have recovered 36 bodies, some of them from the nearby bushes. Many people are still missing, and we don’t know whether they were taken away by the terrorists or not,” a local source close to Tungan Makeri, who simply identified himself as Musa, told our correspondent on the phone.
It was gathered that over 50 houses were either destroyed or burnt down at Tungan Makeri alone, which the people said was the epicentre of the attack.
Our source further disclosed that, apart from the men who have been busy since yesterday burying those killed, all the women and children have left the two communities.
“As we speak (1:30 p.m. Sunday), no security agent has visited the communities since yesterday (Saturday), either during or after three hours of madness by the terrorists.
“The terrorists operated freely, slaughtering people and burning down houses without any resistance or help coming from anywhere.
“The government too has decided to keep mute since yesterday when this incident occurred. It’s quite unfortunate that armless villagers are being killed without anybody coming to their rescue,” our source lamented.
However, as of the time of filing this report (2:30 p.m.), there was no statement from either the government or the police over the latest massacre.
Also, all attempts to reach the Chairman of Borgu Local Government Area, Mallam Nasiru Mohammed, for his comment were not successful despite several phone calls put across to him.
Borgu kingdom, comprising the Borgu and Agwara Local Government Areas, has become the epicentre of terrorist attacks in recent times, with an unspecified number of people killed, several others abducted, and properties, including cattle worth millions of naira, lost to the attackers.
The climax of the incessant attacks in the area was the mass abduction of over 300 students of Papiri Missionary School in Agwara Local Government in November last year.
Unconfirmed reports had it that over ₦1 billion in dollars was paid as ransom before the children were released in two batches after spending one month in captivity.
Also, in January this year, the terrorists invaded a cattle market in Kasunwa Deji in the area and burnt down the entire market. Seven people were said to have been killed in that attack, while an unspecified number of cattle were stolen.
Worried by the escalation of terrorist attacks within the Borgu kingdom, some political and traditional leaders across communities in the kingdom appealed to the Federal Government to urgently deploy security agents to the troubled communities in the Agwara and Borgu Local Government Areas of the state.
They specifically urged the Federal Government, as a matter of urgency, to establish a military base in the area to curtail the onslaught by the gunmen, saying that the current security situation in the area is not only worrisome but scary.
The leaders, while addressing journalists, said the entire Borgu kingdom, comprising Borgu and Agwara Local Government Areas, is under siege from bandits and other hoodlums that have made life miserable for the people in the last three months alone.
