A group of Fulani herdsmen on Tuesday hinted that their men indeed struck last Sunday at Dogon Dawa village in Birnin-Gwari local government of Kaduna killing at least 20 persons.
Reports from Kaduna indicate that some Fulani leaders who were at the headquarters of the Kaduna state Police Command confided in reporters that attack may have been in the aftermath of an earlier killing of four Fulani men, including the Chairman of the Miyetti Allah group in Dogon Dawa on Saturday.
The vigilante group there reportedly abducted and killed the four men .The police also confessed that the vigilante group overpowered its officers.
In Kaduna on today, Fulani leaders who spoke under the condition of anonymity revealed that vigilante have become so powerful and they resorted to the arrest and summary execution of the Fulani herdsmen in that area over alleged armed robbery.
They mentioned the Miyetti Allah Chairman and the others who were said to be on transit when the vigilante groups abducted and killed them.
One of the Fulani leaders said “the killing of the Miyetti Allah Chairman and the others may have sparked off the Dogon Dawa attack on Sunday.
“It may have been a sort of reprisal attack for the unjust killing of fellow Fulani who were on transit and for a very long time now, the vigilante group has been terrorizing and killing our people in that area.”
Meanwhile,Olufemi Adenaike, Kaduna state Commissioner of Police, has denied reports that a policeman led the team of attackers at Dogon Dawa village.He made this denial at a press conference in Kaduna.The CP “there is actually nothing like the police led the gang of criminals from house to house to start killing people.”
“We have launched an investigation into this matter and you can imagine that about 25 people were killed and police will fold its hands. All the security agencies are on it.”
“We have just finished our security meeting and everybody has his role to play. We are maintaining our ground at Dogon Dawa. Our mobile police team is there, soldiers are there, and other security agencies are there, to make sure that the people are safe.”
Speaking further he gave an insight into why the police post in Dogon Dawa was closed, saying, “there was a directive from headquarters that all police posts not properly manned should be closed and merged with the nearest police station.
“Due to the security situation in the country, we are trying to avoid a situation where bandits over run some of our police posts and endanger the lives of policemen there.”
Also,ASP Musa Shero,the officer in Charge of the Kuyelo police post in that area, who also briefed the press said he had received a report on Saturday on the arrest of the Miyetti Allah Chairman and others .The police he said pursued the vigilante.
“When we eventually accosted them, the vigilante people were armed with all sorts of weapons including guns and cutlasses and it was clear that we could not control them as we were only three of us.
“I reported the matter to the DPO in Birnin-Gwari and he said that if our lives were threatened we should leave them.”
CSP Abu Birchi Abubakar, the Birnin-Gwari DPO, , while giving his account , noted that the police got the Dogon Dawa attack at about 7 am and that, “by the time we got there about 8 am, it was already late.”
Furthermore, the Jama’atu Nasril in a statement in Kaduna condemned the Sunday killings. The statement signed by the group’s Secretary-General, Dr. Khalid Aliyu Abubakar, said , “once again, we are in shock and deep mourning after receiving the devastating news of another orchestrated and senseless attack on Muslims observing their early morning prayers in a mosque in Dogon Dawa.
“The attack claimed the lives of over 20 worshipers, including a community leader and “this is utterly condemnable and reprehensible.
“This dastardly act of Dogon Dawa comes just a few weeks after the nation witnessed several sprees of murderous attacks on innocent students in Mubi, Adamawa state, in Maiduguri and in Port Harcourt.
“These repeated acts of terror call for more than just sober reflection, as they again point to the fact of the need for more urgent and effective steps to address the precarious security situation the nation is in today as things have gone well beyond any sensible imagination.
“The JNI uses this medium to express its strong condemnation of such devilish Dogon Dawa attack and urge the Kaduna state government not to leave any stone unturned in fishing out the perpetrators of this heinous crime. And they must be punished according to their crime.
“It has become so glaring that the security situation in Nigeria is fatally blurred. Therefore, a stitch in time may save nine.” .
