The federal government has deployed
security personnel in communities in Igaba Local Government Area of
Kaduna State where over 50 people were killed by gunmen on Sunday.
Also Governor Nasir el-Rufai, the Kaduna
State Police Commissioner, Mr. Ali Janga, and top security personal are
said to be on their way to the affected communities.
The bandits were said to have invaded 13
villages in Kerawa Ward, where many people were killed with several
others sustaining injuries.
The villages were said to have been razed by the bandits who, sources said, were probably on a revenge mission.
Some of the affected villages — Zareyawa, Kerawa, Marina Rago, Hashimawa, and Unguwar Barau — are in Kerawa Ward.
Thousands of women and children in the
affected communities are said to have relocated to a primary school in
Birnin Yero for refuge.
A councillor representing Kerawa Ward,
Alhaji Daiyibu Kerawa, described the attack as unprecedented and pleaded
with President Muhammadu Buhari, to as a matter of urgency, come to the
aid of the people in the community by deploying security personal in
the area.
He said the bandits arrived Karewa at
about 6:00am on Sunday after burning down other villages and unleashing
mayhem on the people.
In an interview with the Hausa Service
of the Voice of America (VOA), the councillor said: “What happened was
unprecedented. We have never seen such kind of horror in our lives.
“These killers are Boko Haram. They
stormed our village killing indiscriminately. They spared nobody, the
young, the old, even Almajiris were not spared.
“They continued to shoot people, setting fire on the dead and on property.
“It was extremely horrific!’ They went from one room to the other, a man and his children were killed, even new born babies.
“We have over 50 dead now, we are yet to bury them. It will take hours to bury the dead.
“We are appealing to the federal
government to please pay attention to the situation in Igabi Local
Government Area, especially Igabi west.
“President Buhari should come to our
rescue. Please deploy security agents that can do this work, those
earlier stationed here never stayed.
“We all must die one day and return to
Almighty Allah, even the bandits were saying so. Therefore, the
government should fear Allah. We are in a terrible situation.
“If we start this funeral now, we will
not finish till midnight. We saw a plane, but it just passed like it was
flying to Makkah.
“These killers are not just bandits,
they are Boko Haram, they did not steal anything, they just killed and
burnt peoples’ belongings.”
Meanwhile Shehu Sani, a former senator who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial Zone, has condemned the killings.
In a statement on Monday in Kaduna, Sani
said the mass killings of innocent people in Kerawa village and
surroundings by suspected bandits stand unreservedly condemned.
He said the northern governors are
afraid of confronting the federal government and taking independent
action to protect their people while killings and the kidnappings go on.
“Killings and kidnappings have become a daily occurrence in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Niger States.
“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 go on.
“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,” Sani said.
According to him, “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 elite
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 down or perish.”
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