•Babies, children, Almajiris among 50 killed
•We never witnessed such horror before — Survivor
•No rest, no negotiation until bandits are wiped out —Gov el-Rufa’i

By Ibrahim Hassan

It was indeed a tragedy, the kind that evoked sympathy even when the victims were one’s enemies. For about three hours last Sunday, the 1st of March, a gang of sadistic bandits, armed with dangerous weapons unleashed mayhem on communities in Giwa and Igabi Local Government Areas of Kaduna state burning and killing.

At the end of the attack, more than 50 residents of the communities, including children and women were killed by the bloodthirsty terrorists

As strong as he might have appeared to be, the Governor of Kaduna state, Malam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufa’i was visibly shaken while on a condolence visit to the bereaved survivors. Hearts melted when he openly and humbly apologized to the communities for government’s inability to secure their lives and property.

The incidence happened just few weeks after the gruesome killing of an entire family in the same Giwa Local Government Area of the state. About 16 members of the same family were reportedly locked up by the rampaging bandits who invaded Fatika village. The family members, who were burnt by the bandits, among others,were still being mourned when the attacks on Giwa and Igabi last Sunday happened.

Speaking on the invasion, the natives of Kerawa had sad stories to tell as virtually all families were affected. It was reported that even babies, Almajiris (child urchins) and many other vulnerable people were not spared by the gunmen. Kerawa village had for long suffered untold hardships in the hands of kidnappers. That attack,as someone had suggested,was a kind of reprisal because the bandits had suspected the villagers were giving them away to the authorities.

We never witnessed such horror before——Survivor

A native of the village who was interviewed on phone minutes after the bandits had fled, Malam Dayibu, said there was heavy presence of the police in the community after the attack. He said “while the attack was on, an aircraft, presumably on surveillance duty was sighted hovering above the sky”. According to him, “what happened was unprecedented, we have never seen such kind of horror in our lives. These killers were Boko Haram terrorists. They stormed our village killing indiscriminately, they spared nobody. The young, the old, even Almajiris were not spared. They were just shooting people, setting fire on the dead and on property. It was extremely horrific! They killed babies, they went from one room to the other, a man and his children were killed. We have over 50 people dead now.

“We are appealing to the Federal Government to please come to our aid in Igabi Local Government Area, especially Igabi west. President Buhari should come to our rescue, he should please deploy security agents who can protect us as those who were earlier stationed here never stayed. We all must die one day and return to Almighty Allah, even the bandits were saying so. The government should fear Allah, we are in a terrible situation “.

He said the killers were not bandits because of the way and manner they carried out the killings. According to him, “they were just like Boko Haram, they did not steal anything, they just killed and burnt people’s belongings. A food store with about 200 bags of maize,was burnt by the killers”.

Specifically, the villages attacked were Kerawa, Rago, Zareyawa, Marina, Hashimawa, and Unguwar Barau in Igabi Local Government Area, some with close proximity to Giwa.

We need more food, medicine — Resident

Mohammed, a local hunter in the area, recalled how the bandits attacked the community.”From where we hid, we saw the gunmen vandalizing property and burning houses, as thick smoke billowed up the sky. Only Almighty Allah saved us. Government should come to our rescue, We have nothing now, our people need more food and medicine,” he said.

Nuhu Sani Lere, an activist of Kaduna Youth for Good Governance, said he has had sleepless nights since the tragedy happened. He said now was the time to rally round the state government and find ways of assisting the victims of the attack. He said although the state government had tried in ensuring that Kaduna state remained safe, he appealed that organisations such as his should mobilize support and ensure that those in the affected communities got immediate relief. The Federal Government, he said, should come to the aid of Kaduna as the attacks were becoming too many.

While corroborating the views expressed by Nuhu Sani, Hon Zayyad Ibrahim who represents the area in Nigeria’s lower parliament, said it was an emergency that required urgent federal presence.

Although no group or individual had claimed responsibility for the attack, it was gathered that it was a kind of reprisal as the killers had suspected the locals of giving information to the authorities on their activities.

In his reaction on the attack, Rev John Joseph Hayab, chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Kaduna state, while lamenting over the killings said it was heartwarming that Governor Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i had apologized over the incidence.

“Now that the Governor has seen the security challenges which had claimed several lives and property in the State, the onus is now on the Government to deal severely with the bandits and kidnappers who had held the state hostage. We will never get it right in this country until our leaders begin to ignore bad advisers around them who will always tell them that everything is going well with the people just to keep their jobs going without giving true advice to those in authority about what is happening to the common man on the street, ,” he said.

According to him, “when CAN cried out on the incessant killings going on in the state, some people unfortunately for whatever reasons best known to them, gave us names. Our concern in time past and even now has been , let the common man on the street be safeguarded and feel secured like any other person. But when we begin to read different meanings to what somebody said either because we are not of the same faith or political affiliation, it serves as the beginning of our serious challenges in the society.”

IGP vows to smoke out bandits from Kaduna forests

The Inspector General of Police, IGP, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu who was in Kaduna, has vowed to smoke Kaduna forests and uproot the bandits. The police boss who interacted with senior security officers on their activities in the state late Wednesday, also mapped out strategies and reviewed modalities in ending the killings in Kaduna state.

“This is very important because there are some challenges of bandits, ISWAP members and some elements of Boko Haram around the state. This necessitated our concerted effort to root them out by negotiating with our sister agency, the Airforce and we went to the forest to fight them and recorded success. This is a constant strategy we put in place to go into their den to root them out as we are not relenting on our effort. So, I am here in Kaduna to reassess the strategy in view of the fact that some villages were attacked by bandits in Igabi and Giwa Local Government Areas on Sunday where about 51 people were killed during the attack.

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“What happened should not have happened and we will not allow it to happen again, we have been briefed on the channel that opened up on the attack and we will block those channels so they will never have the opportunity to attack again. These bandits have their houses in these villages and they believe that there are some people who are collaborating with the law enforcement agencies giving information about them. We have observed that they attacked mostly early in the morning and at night, hence we will restrategise to stop them from attacking these villages again as we have brought more resources such as mobile units, special forces, counter terrorism unit, from other commands to Kaduna so as to re equip the strategic officers in Kaduna to deal with banditry.

“For our men who are on the front line as always, we talk to them on the rules of engagement as they need to be courageous and remain focused because as you get to the front line, you do not retreat until you capture. We will encourage them to continue to work as we will keep supporting them in whatever way we can”, he said.

Opposition political party in the state, the People’s Democratic Party( PDP) regretted the high number of casualties from the attack. Secretary of the PDP in Kaduna State, Alhaji Ibrahim Aliyu Wusono, said the over 50 people killed during the attack, was as a result of poor security .”The operatives should be blamed for such dastardly act which led to loss of lives of innocent citizens,” he said.

Following the attack, there was mass exodus of residents in the communities as survivors who could trace their relations had moved to where they considered “safer locations.”

Commissioner for Internal security in Kaduna state, Mr.Samuel Aruwan, said government was doing its best on security. “We are deeply saddened with these killings, the Governor in company of security agencies and other government officials had paid a sympathy visit to the affected villages and also to think over the strategies we would adopt in dealing with these killers”.

No rest until bandits are wiped out —Gov Nasir el-Rufai

Governor El-Rufai, who mobilized the State Emergency Relief Agency to the affected communities, said his administration would not negotiate with or grant amnesty to the bandits.

His words: “In Kaduna state we don’t give bandits amnesty and we don’t negotiate with them, we will not rest until the bandits are completely wiped out. It is our duty to wipe them out and send them to their maker, the security agencies are taking the war to the forest and we are eliminating them.

“The security agencies are doing the best they can, but they find it difficult to get to remote areas in good time due to poor access roads while the natives also find it difficult to alert security agencies due to poor GSM network.”

“But I am grateful to the Airforce, Army, police and DSS for being always prompt. It would have been worse. If not for their prompt intervention, the bandits would have wiped out the entire villages, but people are still here. I also come to apologise to the community for our failure to fully protect them, we are doing our best to minimise the situation. We are hoping that this bandit issue will be addressed because security operatives are on ground to manage the situation. If the security closed one area, the bandits would attack another area but the residents should continue to forgive us where we have failed to fully protect,” he said.

Vanguard