KADUNA VILLAGES ATTACK DEATH RISE TO 43

The five villages invaded by herdsmen in Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State last Sunday, said the incident was a result of refusal of a farmer to release his farmland to herdsmen for grazing.

The death toll, as at Sunday, was said to be 31, while a villager said they had buried 43 yesterday.

However, Kaduna State police spokesman, ASP Aliyu Usman, stated that the final official casualty figure would be made available, but was yet to do so at press time.

The villages that came under the latest onslaught are Kigam, Kitakum, Unguwan Magaji, Unguwan Rimi and Kizipi, all in Chawai Chiefdom in Kauru Local Government Area, about 300 kilometers east of Kaduna metropolis.

An elder, who spoke in an emotionally, said:

In September, a herdsman called Haruna, approached a farmer here in Unguwan Magaji, saying he wanted to use a portion of his land for grazing. “The farmer refused, saying he had prepared the land for planting yam by October. Yet Haruna moved in with his cattle and built straw huts on the farm where he slept.

He also stated that herdsmen invasion in the villages started when the herdsman attacked everyone with his stick, the matter got to the police and he was realeased, he went back to hit hut and started shooting. This gave rise to youth to chase him out and destroy his hut. That was when the invasion of the villages started.

Monday morning, Simon Arabo, a member of the House of Representatives (Kauru/Lere federal constituency), according to a village source, who displayed pictures to support his claim, was the one who arrived the villages with trucks of policemen and soldiers, which enabled them search the bushes for the dead, and also gave them cash to feed.