By John Shiklam
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.”
