•How bandits killed village head, 38 others in Niger
From John Adams, Minna
More facts have emerged on how bandits invaded a village market in Madaka community, Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State and killed 38 people in a hot afternoon on Thursday last week.
The village head of Madaka was also chased into the bush and shot twice on the head by the gunmen, who operated freely for over two hours, according to a source in the community.
Several others sustained various degrees of bullets wounds from the attack, which the people said was carried out by some suspected Fulanis herdsmen in the area.
Houses, shops, motorcycles and vehicles were not spared in the brutal attack.
Daily Sun exclusively gathered that a week before the bloody attack, the vigilante group in the community had serious altercation with the some Fulani herdsmen in the area, leading to an alleged disappearance of some Fulani youths in the area.
It was further gathered that the Fulani herdsmen also accused the vigilantes of stealing their cattle, alleging that some of their cattle got missing after the altercation with the vigilantes.
The Fulanis herdsmen, therefore, decided to report the matter to the law enforcement agents and this led to the arrest of all the vigilantes in Madaka community. They were whisked away to Minna, the state capital.
They were subsequently detained by the security agents for questioning over the matter. According to our source, it was when the vigilantes were being held in Minna that the Fulani herdsmen mobilized in their numbers and lunched what the people said was the deadliest attack in the community in recent time.
Hell was let loose as the gunmen invaded the market in a commando- like manner and opened fire on the helpless people.
After about an hour of indiscriminate shooting, the market was littered with bodies of those killed while unspecified number escaped into the bush with various degrees of bullets wounds.
It could be recalled that after a similar bloody attack on the community about two months ago, the second in the year before the Thursday attack, the people had established a very formidable vigilance group and had successfully thwarted every attack from bandits in the area.
The community had remained without the presence of security agents and had relied on the efforts of the local vigilantes to safeguard the people but on Thursday the bandits had a field day, taking the advantage of the absence of the vigilance group to unleash terror on the people.
A member of the community, who spoke to our correspondent from Zumba in Shiroro local government area of the state where he is currently taking refuge with his family, said the attack was successful because of the absence of the vigilantes.
“If the vigilantes were around on that day, the gunmen wouldn’t have succeeded. The vigilantes were arrested by the security people and detained in Minna that was why the gunmen came and attacked us.
“For over three years now, no bandit could come to the community and operate free without resistance because of the vigilantes. They provide security for the community both day and night, especially on market days.
“When they were arrested the entire community was left without security. I can tell you that many people were killed because uptill now, some people are still missing. I escaped with my family to Zumba,” he said.
The District Head of Madaka, Alhaji Bawale Madaka, told our correspondent that the attack was successful because of the arrest of the vigilantes in the community by the law enforcement agents over an allegation by some suspected herdsmen in the area.
He confirmed that no fewer than 38 bodies of those killed have been buried while those injured are still receiving treatment in an undisclosed government health facility.
While describing the attack as wicked and unfortunate, he disclosed that no government official, security agency or political office holders from the area had visited the community to either sympathize with them or to ascertain the level of damage after the incident.
“Nobody has visited the community since after the attack on Thursday to even find out what actually happened not to talk of sympathizing with the people.We were abandoned to our fate. This is the third attack on the community since this year and nobody has ever identified with the people,” he lamented.
When contacted, the state commissioner for homeland security, Major. Gen. Garba Abdullahi Mohammed, referred our correspondent to the police or Department for State Security (DSS) on any issue in Madaka attack, saying that he can no longer speak on the incident.
The police public relations officer in the state, Wasiu Abiodun, a superintendent of police, did not respond to several telephone calls by the reporter. Since after the attack, the state government is yet to issue any statement on the incident.
Meanwhile, the Emir of Kagara, in whose domain the attack took place, Mallam Ahmed Garba Attahiru 11, has paid a visit to victims of the attack who are currently receiving treatment at the Ibrahim Babangida Specialist Hospital, Minna. The Emir expressed concern over the attack and prayed for the quick recovery of the victims and for peace to return to the troubled communities in his domain.
The entire communities in Rafi local government area of the state have been under bandits attack since 2015 with a number of lives lost, property worth millions of naira destroyed and ransom paid in millions of naira by the people to secure the release of their love ones.
In 2021, for instance, armed bandits stormed the Government Science College Kagara and abducted no fewer than 27 people, including 12 staff of the school and their relations. One of the students was shot dead by the gunmen when he attempted to escape.
Also, two months before Science College students abduction, about 100 bandits stormed Kagara town and seized the entire town in what was described then as the mother of all attacks in the area.
The gunmen stormed the town at about 4pm in a commando-like style as they shot sporadically into air to announce their arrival. The gunmen invaded the town in about 50 motorcycles and a bus. The were fully armed with sophisticated weapons as they moved from shop to shop, dispossessing people of their belongings.
While the shop looting was going on, another group stormed a first generation bank in the town and forced their way into the bank as the staff were preparing to close for the day. A policeman and a bank security personnel were shot dead at the bank premises before moving into the bank to cart away an unspecified amount of cash.
While the people were trying to get over all these incidents, the gunmen again struck along Minna-Tegina road in the same Rafi local government area and abducted 47 passengers. The passengers were on their way back to Minna from Rijau, in Rijau local government area of the state after attending a wedding ceremony.
Eight of the victims were freed four days later after their families paid ransom for their release. The bandits thereafter demanded N500million ransom for the release of the remaining victims
They later regained their freedom after the intervention of the Kaduna based Islamic cleric, Sheik Ahmed Gumi, who met with a group of the bandits in an undisclosed location.