Kwara massacre: Attackers returned on Wednesday to continue their onslaught but retreated when they saw soldiers —Abubakar Abdullahi Danladi, Chairman Kaiama LG, Kwara State

•Says ‘on Thursday, we found more bodies of our people killed in Tuesday attacks’

Chairman of Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State which was attacked by bandits recently, Alhaji Abubakar Danladi Abdullahi, who is also the Chairman of ALGON in the state, in this interview by Deputy Editor, SAM NWAOKO, narrates what happened in the attacked community and measures taken with regard to preventing a recurrence.

What happened in Woro in your local government area was shocking and devastating. How did that attack in Woro come to you and how did you receive the news of the incident?

One month ago, the group that came to attack sent a letter, which was written in Hausa language, that they were coming to preach in Woro and Luku, respectively. The letter was sent to the village head. The village head of Woro sent that letter to us in Kaiama town. I received it, the Emir received it and the DSS received the letter. The security agencies met on the day they received the letter, which was a Thursday. They mobilised themselves and went to Woro. Their thinking was that those people would come to the Friday Jumat to preach. So the security agencies mobilised and went to the community. Some of the soldiers even prayed in the mosque with the Friday congregation. After the prayers, at about 5pm, the soldiers retreated to Kaiama, as well as the forest guards we recently recruited and trained. Two – three days later they preached in a village in Niger State and during the preaching there, they mentioned that they sent a letter to the village head of Woro and Luku but that surprisingly to them, the village head of Woro mobilised soldiers to block them from coming to preach. And their preaching is not all about Islam, it is about indoctrinating our youths to join their group and accept their ways. When they mentioned this in their preaching, we knew these people might be up to something and I feared that they might attack the community, especially the village head because we know them as a ruthless group, and they don’t have mercy on anybody.

Eventually, they came after about one month. They came on Tuesday at about 5:30 to 6 pm or thereabouts. When they came, they went straight to the palace of the village head. On their way, they were shooting sporadically as they moved to his house. We also didn’t know that as a group moved into the town, others had surrounded the community completely. They got to his house, entered and searched for him. They asked from his wife who told them that he was out with his friends. She didn’t even know that her husband had come in earlier to prepare for evening prayers at 7 pm. He heard the gunshots and recognised that the shots sounded differently from those of the local vigilantes in the community. He quickly ran through the back door to escape. When they searched and couldn’t find him they returned to his wife to inquire about him again, but she said she didn’t see him.

Meanwhile, two of his children were at home – a male and a female. The male is a medical graduate while the female is also a graduate of an institution of higher learning. The male is the firstborn of the man while the female is the secondborn. They asked the children to follow them out of the house and summarily shot them in the frontage of their father’s house. Then they went back to the woman, requested for the keys of his vehicles – a Toyota Hilux, a mini bus and one other salon car. They brought the woman and the young children out and drove them in one of the vehicles and as they left, they set the house ablaze.

When they had set the house on fire, they moved to a nearby compound, almost opposite his house. It is their family house and his aged mother is staying at the place. They went there in their continued search for him. When they couldn’t find him there also, they also shot all the males they found in that house. They shot about 10 people there, including his brothers’ children, his cousins and so on, even children. The only person they didn’t shoot was the aged women. They didn’t bring those ones out, they shot them while they were inside. Fortunately for the man, his first wife travelled to a nearby town in Oyo State called Kishi for a wedding. She had gone with some of their children. That was what saved those ones. They went to shops where they sell provisions and so on, and began to set fire to shops and nearby houses.

We have vigilantes in the town who provide security. They are Togolese and an unspecified number of these men were around. I don’t have an exact number of the men. They have been in the village for upwards of 30 years, and they have been very good with the local. They outnumbered them, rounded them up and instantly shot them. When the gunshots would not penetrate them, they now forced them into their office, locked the place with a padlock and shot a grenade at the office. As we speak, we cannot say precisely the number of vigilante men who were bombed in that office because they were badly burnt, and we only saw some skulls, hands and other mangled human body parts.

We counted 75 bodies which we could see. The ones we didn’t see physically, we didn’t want to assume, but we know that the dead should be more than 100. Those who were running away from the village to seek refuge also ran into other bands of the terrorists as they escaped. They were also gunning them down as they ran. It was only when they saw a helicopter flying through the village that they stopped the killing. They retreated because they didn’t know where the chopper was going and nobody knew. Because they retreated, the villagers who had been hiding crept out of their hiding places, believing that they had gone. But when the helicopter had gone out of sight, these bandits who had not gone far, returned to the village and were shooting people indiscriminately.

For instance, when we were preparing for the burial of the bodies we had recovered, we were told that two bodies were sighted somewhere. We dispatched a vehicle to recover the two bodies, but when the vehicle returned, it came with five bodies. That was why the number of casualties kept increasing. Up till yesterday (Thursday), we are still discovering bodies, so we cannot put a number to the casualties, but the ones we saw while at the community are 75.

You said these people preached somewhere in Niger State. This means that they are known to some people and can be identified because they preached to people. What has been done by the security agencies to place their hands on these people who are causing this kind of havoc?

These people are almost professionals if they are not professionals indeed in what they do. They came in face masks to carry out the operation. We have some of our kinsmen in Niger State, in a town called Babana in Borgu Local Government Area of the state. What these people have failed to do in our area, they have succeeded in doing in Babana villages.

What do you mean by “what they have failed to do in our area”? Do you mean indoctrination of the people?

Yes, I mean that they have succeeded in indoctrinating the people in those areas. Let me tell you that if that forest has to be combed, there are some villages where they would go and hide. Those villages in the forests have accepted them as their brothers and kinsmen. That is the reality. We have some areas in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, especially Babana villages where those people have been accepted. That is the same thing they wanted to do in our place, so that if there is any dust in the forest, they can always come to the villages and hide their faces. That is the keg of gunpowder we are sitting on.

You are the local government, the nearest to the people; you can reach the state government which can in turn reach the Federal Government. What are the measures you are looking at to prevent a recurrence of this deadly attack and also prevent these people from taking over your community?

I have to thank my governor and chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Mallam AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq. He was overseas when the incident occurred. When he heard of it he cut short his trip and returned to Ilorin immediately. He also left Ilorin immediately for Kaiama to meet us there and to see things for himself. He got to Kaiama after about 8 hours, straight from his overseas trip. He came with soldiers of the 22 Brigade. He left Kaiama town at about 11 pm to that village to see things for himself. That village is about one hour drive from Kaiama town. He made an assessment of the situation by himself. Some new bodies were also discovered while he was in the town. He saw the extent of damage those people did to the community. The Brigade Commander immediately drafted about 50 soldiers to the community. We recruited some forest guards who were trained recently. As we speak now, we have about 90 officers and men of various security agencies in that place. The Inspector-General of Police has also approved some measures while other steps are also being taken.

Governor AbdulRasaq also moved immediately to Abuja to brief President Bola Ahmed Tinubu what really happened and what he saw himself in the community. We already have a Force Operation Base in Kaiama and another one in Kemanji, where bandits were terrorising us seriously before now. So what we have heard is that Mr. President said they should give us a battalion of soldiers in our area so that the security presence of soldiers and sundry armed forces would be nearer the people to reduce response time to those villages.

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It may interest you to note that on Wednesday morning, those people were returning again to the village to continue what they started on Tuesday evening. They appear not satisfied with how much damage they did to the village and the number of people they killed. However, when they saw the presence of soldiers drafted to the village, they retreated but not without digging a big hole on the road – a federal government road passing through the village. They did that to delay the soldiers whom they thought would come after them. They didn’t just dig a hole, they planted a bomb in the hole which was detonated when a trailer passed the road. The unfortunate trailer which was coming from Kaiama was completely destroyed by the bomb. That is our situation.

The attack is a big, well-planned operation, and Governor Abdulrahman spoke about infiltration of the security forces, intelligence leaks and community sabotage. Are the thoughts of these not creating further panic in you and in the towns in Kaiama LGA because sabotage puts spanner in the works you are doing in the area of security?

Every life is in the hands of God. Some of us have been trying the best we can to see that we protect our communities, give advice to the communities with regards to security of life and property. You see, the forest we are talking about is way larger than the Sambisa Forest. As large as the Sambisa is, the Kainji Lake National Part is larger than it is. The groups of bandits we have in that forest are more than seven. There are more than seven different groups in the Kainji Lake National Park alone. So, we appeal for constant combing of the forest or frequent reconnaissance in the place. This is important.

Surprisingly, we have an Air Force base in Kainji. I think it is used for training and so on. The base in Kainji can be planned to include some other duties. The Federal Government can give a directive that the base should be parading that forest. That Air Force base is not up to two minutes from the forest, it is very close. So I think the Federal government can find some other uses for both the National Park and the Air Force base. If there is better supervision of what happens in that park by either the Air Force or other arms of the Nigerian Armed Forces, these bandits would disappear from there. If they can do some kind of activity there if not weekly, it can be monthly, it would increase the security of life and property in the areas.

I also think that the animals for which the park was created are gone. The animals have moved to some other habitats, so if the Federal Government can create a military base in the forest, it will go a long way to curbing the activities of these bandits. The Kemanji people, where there is an Air Force base, are predominantly farmers just like all the other peoples of the area. Because the Kemanji people are very close to the forest, those bandits drove them all from their farms that are close to the forest. Kemanji people now rely on fetching firewood which they bring to the towns to sell as a means of survival. They can no longer go to their farms again and they are now left with nothing.

What is the situation with the Woro people now, what are the plans towards rehabilitating the community and restoring the people?

The governor has directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to go there and do an assessment of the situation so that the government would go there and do something for the people. They would assess the damages and those affected. Through this, they will feel government presence some more. Then the security presence in the community has been increased and when the new measures being put in place are completed, I know that the people’s fears will be allayed that at least, they have the protection of government in their community and they would return. But for now, as expected, there is scanty people in the village because of the fear of the unknown.

Some survivors must have seen the faces of some of the people who attacked them. Do the assailants look like people you would identify as Nigerians? What are the survivors saying?

I’m telling you, majority of them are Fulani because that is the language they were speaking. They are people from the axis of our kinsmen from Babana in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, because that is the language they are speaking. Those are the tribes. People who were hiding in their homes were listening to them and were understanding what they were saying, because we speak the same language with those ones I am talking about. The Fulani are close to us too. But we can’t identify what brand of Fulani they are but when a Fulani speaks you will understand.

However, I must admit that we have bad eggs among our people. Even in our homes, there are rumour carriers, whatever one does now within minutes it has become a discussion by all because of the modes of communication. They are among us, and they are the worst of us. If those ones are not there, there wouldn’t be banditry because bandits don’t know their way around. They will not have adequate information. In the case of what happened in Worro, they came directly to the home of the village head. Who gave them that information? The informants are among us and we have to find a way to eradicate informants and when we do, banditry will cease or reduce.

How about the injured? What is the government doing for them?

The injured, about six of them, were taken to the general hospital in Kaiama for first aid treatment. They received AK47 gunshot wounds, very few people survive such attacks. After they were given first aid treatment, we brought ambulances which conveyed them to the teaching hospital in Ilorin, the state capital. I still went there to see them on Thursday. One of them has been discharged, some of them need blood transfusion, and some of them need surgery. But we are keeping in touch with them and we are doing everything to support them.

What would you advise people with regard to safety of life and property?

Right now, people are traumatised. Even in Kaiama town, people are traumatised and they are afraid. Teachers have refused to go to school – primary and secondary school teachers are afraid to go to school, and parents have refused to release their children to go to school because of the fear of the unknown. As we speak, we give them psychological advice on how we can all come out of this trauma and life can return to normal in the area. I think with a strong presence of security agencies in our communities, we are good to go. We are feeling the presence of government and the state government is giving us support to come out of this fast. The state government is also extending its hand of support to the traumatised families, especially those who lost loved ones. By the grace of God, we will come out of this better and stronger.

Secondly, we are educating our people on how to handle information on insecurity. Some of them know these people, but if they point out the bad eggs, what would be their fate when they are released from detention. It is a big issue because some of them are incorporated back into the society and those who gave them up would not know their fate if they return to the society. That is the fear of the people on handling information.