It was a bloody Easter in Kaura Local Government Area in the south of Kaduna State as terrorists shot dead at least 20 people. Sources said the killings started in villages on top of and around Zilang and Mafang hills on Saturday night and continued till Sunday.
A source said: “We were helpless here; there were no security men to save us. While they shot some people, they used machetes to slaughter others like chickens. “One of the survivors, who happened to be my brother, explained this to me.”
In a telephone interview with our correspondent, the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Adefemi Adenaike, said that 19 people were killed on the hills. He said: “The incident happened on top of the hills, not on the ground. We did not notice it on time because of the nature of the hills. It was until people started running down the hills that we got to know about the incident, but our men are on ground to restore law and order.
“The security report I have
shows that only 19 people were killed by unknown gunmen. The place is calm and peaceful now. We are working round the clock to fish out the perpetrators of the attack. “For now, we don’t know those who are behind it but I assure we will get them.” Reports said several wounded residents are now receiving medical treatment in some hospitals, while corpses were deposited at the morgue.
The remaining residents have fled the area for fear of further attacks. Kaura Local Government shares a boundary with Plateau State where Fulani herdsmen and farmers clashed recently, leaving several people dead while hundreds were injured.
The attack came just as Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SOKAPU, called on Governor Mukhtar Yero to stop the influx of Fulani herdsmen from other states to Southern Kaduna communities to avoid fresh hostilities in the area. SOKAPU President, Mr. Ephraim Goje, while reacting to migration of Fulani herdsmen from troubled zones in the North to Southern Kaduna, said the residents would hold Yero responsible if he failed to act.
Meanwhile, despite the assurances by the Joint Task Force, JTF, and police of a peaceful Easter in Borno State, gunmen suspected to be members of Boko Haram at the weekend attacked the palace of the District Head of Pulka, Ali Pulka, in Gwoza Local Government.
They shot the district head dead in front of his wife and children. Pulka is a border town with Cameroun and 119 kilometres southeast of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
A police officer attached to the Divisional Police Station, Gwoza, said yesterday in Maiduguri, the state capital, that the gunmen came in two Golf Volkswagen cars and a motorcycle and proceeded straight to the palace. The police officer said the gunmen had killed Ali before soldiers rushed to the scene to prevent further attacks and killings in the town. He said: “Our report on the assassination of the District Head of Pulka (Ali) and attacks on the palace indicated that one person was feared killed with the injuring of two people, including the driver of the district head.
“The gunmen did not use Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs, and petrolbombs in attacking this palace on Saturday.” Speaking on the incident, the Division Police Officer, DPO, Alhaji Audu Boka, said the gunmen were suspected Boko Haram members who attacked and torched a police station, bank and a prison, setting 170 inmates free on March 4.
In another development, an explosion yesterday sent shivers down the spines of residents of Karu, a buffer town between Abuja and Nasarawa State, shattering the windows of some malls in the area. The incident occurred about 6p.m.
It was not immediately clear if there were casualties, but the popular Karu Shopping Plaza, which also houses a major eatery and another nearby plaza were affected by the explosion. The development caused panic in the area, forcing fun-seekers at the eatery to scamper to safety, leaving their loved ones to their fate.
Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, Olufemi Ogunbayode, who confirmed the incident said it was caused by a faulty gas cylinder kept behind the eatery. Speaking through the FCT Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, DSP Altine Daniel, the police boss said: “I have just spoken to the DPO Karu and he said it was a gas cylinder which exploded behind Mr. Biggs in the plaza. Nobody was injured and nobody was killed.”
When National Mirror visited the scene last night, an eyewitness, Ibrahim Amodu said the explosion occurred from the top floor of the Plaza and shattered most of the windows in the top floor of the complex. According to him, some staff of the eatery said that they had noticed some suspicious movements around the complex on Easter Sunday, but were surprised that the explosion went off on Easter Monday.
They could not however confirm what actually caused the explosion. Police officers drafted from the Karu Police Division arrived at the scene and cordoned off the entire place. They immediately diverted vehicular and human traffic from the area following fears that another explosion could occur.
No comments:
Post a Comment