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From John Adams, Minna
After weeks of bloody attacks on communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, the gunmen have agreed to ceasefire, to enable the people return home to evacuate their food stuff and other valuables.
The ceasefire, according to a reliable source close to Galape, one of the affected communities in Galadiman Kogo District, will only last for five days as the gunmen have continued to lay siege to the areas.
The development came as a great relief to the people of the affected communities who have been faced with shortage of food, water and other essentials since they fled their homes, as they struggle to cope at their various IDP camps in Zumba, Gwada, Kuta and other places. Over 6,000 people have been forced to flee their homes in the last one month following bloody attacks by gunmen, leaving no fewer than 15 security agents and over 50 villagers killed, hundreds injured with property, including food stuff and houses worth millions of naira destroyed by the rampaging gunmen.
Affected communities that have been overrun by the gunmen in the last one month include Galape, Iburo, Nakudna and Galkogo, the epic centers, Pellele, Agatai, Kusasu and Gofan Keremi, among others.
The continued onslaught by the gunmen has forced the Joint Security Task Force, led by the special hunters, to abandon the communities after 11 of their men were killed and several others injured.
A source who did not want his name in print said, for security reasons, the affected communities had remained without security agents until Monday morning’s bloody attacks which left four Civil Defence personnels, who had gone to the communities for on-the-spot assessment dead, after their vehicle ran into an explosive device planted by the gunmen. The gunmen, it was gathered, had announced the ceasefire through a phone call to a member of one of the communities whose number was obtained from one of the victims in their captivity.
