Slain 32-year-old pregnant mother, four kids buried in Onitsha 

The 32-year-old pregnant woman, Fatima Jibril, four of her children and others killed by gunmen terrorising the South-East region of Nigeria, have been buried at a cemetery in Onitsha, Anambra State.

Mrs Jibril, an indigene of Adamawa State, was buried alongside her four children: Fatima, Khadijah, Hadiza and Zaituna, aged nine, seven, five and two with others on Tuesday.

She was nine months pregnant.

The general secretary, Arewa community in Anambra State, Mahmud Ibrahim Imam, who made the announcement in a statement he signed and issued to newsmen in Awka, on Thursday, called for calm.

Imam, who narrated further how the barbaric act happened on that evil Sunday, via the statement, said, “It happened on Sunday, 22 May 2022. We woke up peaceful, but later in the day, we started receiving calls from our members from various locations of the state that the so-called unknown gunmen had launched a series of attacks on them which led to the deaths of about 15 persons.

“That of Orumba Local Government was the most trending which involved a pregnant woman. Her name is Fatima Jibrin. She with her four kids were murdered in the middle of the road by these faceless and wicked people, called unknown gunmen. All the massacres happened on the same day.

“We are saying this is a well planned and targeted at our people only. And the point of emphasis is the fact that those killings were not the first of such attacks and killings unleashed on the Arewa people in Anambra state since after the last governorship election that was conducted late last year. 

“Even on the 18th of April 2022, seven Arewa were brutally killed by the same gunmen at night at Atani in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra. We wrote to the state government but not even a condolence was not extended to us by the governor or any of the leaders of thought in the state.

“We have the video of their burial at our cemetery in Onitsha. We have buried all of them in our cemetery here in Onitsha, Anambra State.

“We are mourning and also living in a state of extreme fear in the whole of Anambra State.

“It should be noted that if not for our concerted efforts and serious resistance of not taking the corpses back to the North and they are from different states, only Almighty Allah knows what would befall our Igbo brothers residing over there as result of retaliation for the heinous and barbaric actions meted on Arewa people in Eastern Nigeria, particularly in Anambra State.

“We are peace-loving people and we have been living peacefully with our host community for centuries over 200 years in the state.

“We are calling on both state and the Federal government to intervene just to bring to an end the killings going on in the South East, particularly Anambra state.

“Soludo is the governor for all people in Anambra State because we all voted for him, therefore we should be treated equally as humans regardless of ethnicity or religious affiliations.”

Nigerian Tribune gathered that there has been a lot of condemnation over the gruesome murder of the pregnant woman and her four children at Isolo, in Orumba North Local Government Area. The Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbanjo, a Lagos lawyer, Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), have called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the killer gunmen.

The state governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, has pledged justice for the slain pregnant Fatima and her four children, vowing that no stone would be left unturned in fishing out and dealing with their assailants.

In a statement signed by Christian Aburime, his press secretary, the governor vowed to fish out the perpetrators and ensure they were dealt with according to law.

Meanwhile, the Government of Anambra State has condoled with Mr Jubril Ahmed, the husband of the woman who was killed alongside her four children.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that Governor Soludo including the Commissioner for Information, Mr. Paul Nwosu, his Women and Social Development counterpart, Mrs Ify Obinabo, Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Christian Aburime, among others met with him at the Cattle Market, Amansea, in Awka North Local Government Area of the State.

The Information Commissioner, who conveyed the condolence message from the Governor and Ndi Anambra to the family of the departed, explained that it was not a targeted attack on a particular tribe or religion in Nigeria.

Obinabo stated that Anambra people are largely travellers who are receptive to people from other tribes, appealing to the gunmen to have a rethink for the sake of their unborn generation and stop killing fellow human beings as such doesn’t pay.

Leader of Miyetti Allah in the South East, Allahaji Gidado Sidikki, who described the incident as horrible, thanked the governor for sending the delegation. He explained that they have lost many people, stressing that many of their people are already travelling back to the North, as a result of the incessant killings of their members across the South East region occasioned by the gunmen.

While pledging their readiness to continue working with the government to enthrone peace in the state, Mallam Gidado noted that his people living and doing business in Anambra are aware that they are not the target recalling the lawmaker who was also killed in a gruesome manner.

The deceased’s husband, Alhaji Jubril lacked words to express himself, though the Sarkin Chamber of Anambra State, Usman Farang prayed that violence should stop.

Alhaji Jubril works as a security guard in Anambra State.