Over 100 persons, mostly children and women, killed between Friday night and Saturday morning by unknown gunmen were yesterday buried in mass graves in Kaura local government area of Kaduna state amidst mourning.
The attackers, carrying sophisticated weapons, killed over 100 persons in Ungwan Gata, Sankwai and Tekum villages of Bondong district, Moro’a Chiefdom and injured over 48 persons who are presently hospitalised in different hospitals in the state and Plateau states.
According to the Secretary of Kaduna state chapter of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev Sunday Ibrahim, the killings were ‘barbaric and unjustifiable’.
He said: “We are mourning and condemned in strong terms these serial killings. As Christians we are not preaching violence but urging government and security agencies to rise up and face reality of things.
We are hearing uncomplimentary remarks from some quarters and it is unfortunate but may their souls rest in peace.”
Similarly, the Southern Kaduna People in the Diaspora USA (SOKADUSA) has tasked the federal and state governments to arrest perpetrators of the killings.
In a statement signed by its president, Engr. Dauda Nuhu, it said: “It is utterly wrong that people in the southern region of Kaduna state have gone through these types of perennial killings to the point it will create sleepless nights for these peace loving communities.
“SOKADUSA is deeply troubled by the repetitiveness of these types of Mayhem in our communities and truly not happy that it keeps happening recurrently but also that it took law enforcement 5 hours to arrive at the scenes of the massacre of these innocent lives including a pastor and his family.”
Meanwhile, the Kaduna state Governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, yesterday abandoned a scheduled official assignment in the United States and returned to the country over the deadly attacks in Southern Kaduna.
The governor was already in the United Kingdom enroute the U.S. to attend a symposium on peace and security in northern Nigeria, organised by the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) in Washington.
He was billed to address the conference on the security challenges in the North and Kaduna state in particular, but had to make a u-turn to Nigeria on receiving the sad news that some hoodlums had attacked villages in Kaduna and killed many innocent citizens.
The governor departed Nigeria Friday morning only to return Saturday.
The symposium is to have attendance of governors from northern states that are facing security and economic challenges as well as lawmakers and investors from the US and Europe. The aim of the event is to seek collaborative solutions to improving security as well as economic development of the North.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has carried out an assessment of the affected communities and victims, with a view to commence the process of providing relief to victims of the attacks, who were displaced from their homes.
