No fewer than 20 people have been reported killed in one of a series of attacks by suspected Boko Haram terrorists that began on Thursday in Shiroro Local Government Area (LGA) of Niger State.
The Senator representing Niger East district, Sani Musa, has described the gruesome murder of the 20 harmless villagers as barbaric, heartless and inhuman.
“This is my darkest moment as the representative of the people of Niger East Senatorial district. I am very helpless at the moment. My people, including men, women and children.
In a particular incident in Bassa, a town in the area, the terrorists beheaded 10 of the victims, all of whom were young men.
The witnesses to the horror, who declined to give their names out of fear of the terrorists, said the young men were beheaded for refusing to join the Boko Haram terror group.
Providing more grisly details, according to The Premium Times, one of the residents who fled the community, said the terrorists made members of the community hold the severed heads, while they took pictures and made video recordings.
They said the terrorists stormed the village in broad daylight on Thursday, assembled the residents and randomly selected 20 adults whom they shot at close range.
“They told us that anybody who refused to be recruited into their fold would be given a similar treatment. They said they used the 10 beheaded youths as an example.
“They said they had warned us that everybody should vacate the community but that we refused. It’s either we join them or we leave the community,” a resident said.
Other villages attacked between Thursday and Friday include Lanta, Kasimani, Unguwan-Madi and Makuda.
In all the villages, the terrorists reportedly set houses on fire and killed domestic animals.
Two months ago, suspected Boko Haram terrorists had also beheaded nine people in Allawa in the same Shiroro LGA, after the terrorists dislodged soldiers camped in the community.
The nine victims were said to have defied warnings of the terrorists that villagers who fled during the attack on the military camp should not return.
“The men went back to the community with their wives to get some foodstuffs when they were rounded up and beheaded. They (the terrorists) asked the women to send the message to the people that anybody who returned to the community would suffer the same fate,” a resident said.
The state government and the police had not issued a statement on the latest massacre as of the time of this report.
However, the Senator representing Niger East district, Sani Musa, described the gruesome murder of the 20 harmless villagers as barbaric, heartless and inhuman, saying that: “My heart bleeds for them.
“This is my darkest moment as the representative of the people of Niger East Senatorial district. I am very helpless at the moment. My people, including men, women and children are being killed like animals.
“The question is what do they want from the people? These are harmless and innocent peasant farmers. Do they want to chase my people away from their lands,” Musa said in a statement he issued on Friday.
According to him, “only three weeks ago a group of bandits attacked the Kuchi community, killing seven security agents and went away with about 150 people. Up till this moment, the entire Kuchi community remains deserted.”
The Senator noted that the latest attacks came when the locals were preparing to return to the farm, which is the villagers’ only livelihood.
Ogheneuvde Ohwovoriole
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