Southern Kaduna boils again as gunmen kill 14, houses burnt

By AHMED ALI

At least fourteen people have been killed in a fresh attack at Mado village, Mabushi in Atyap Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Some houses were torched in the attack launched on Saturday night.

Speaking to Daily Trust on the development, the Chairman, Atyap Chiefdom Peace and Security Partnership Committee, (ACPSPC), Mr John Bala Gora, wondered the reason for the incessant attacks despite efforts at restoring peace.

He also renewed his appeal to security operatives to redouble efforts to secure the “defenceless and peace loving people of the chiefdom”.

In a reprisal attack, a Fulani settlement in Kankada, Madakiya District in Bajju Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf local government area, was completely burnt down Sunday morning.

Halima Haruna, a female resident of the torched settlement, who was rescued and taken to Zonkwa Divisional Police Station, told Daily Trust that the attackers surrounded their community in the early hours of Sunday.

A wife to the Ardo of Kankada, Haruna, said she saw two corpses, man and a woman, on her way to hide somewhere.

“We were forced to run and hide somewhere while some of our people ran to the bush for their safety.”

“We don’t know what happened to them as I am speaking with you now, we spent three hours before the security arrived and took us to the Police Station here in Zonkwa. Our houses were totally razed,” she said.

She said the attackers told them that they want to take revenge of what happened to them Saturday night somewhere around Samaru Kataf, “which we know nothing about.”

In the past one week, four villages in Atyap chiefdom have come under separate attacks with scores killed, many injured and several houses burnt.

Confirming both the incidents to our reporter, the Police Public Relations Officer, Kaduna State, ASP Muhammed Jalige said policemen have been deployed in the attacked community.

He called on the people of Zangon Kataf in particular, and the people of southern Kaduna in general, to stop taking laws into their hands. (Daily Trust)