Gunmen suspected to be herdsmen
Saturday night attacked Etogi community, Gbara ward, in Mokwa local government
area of Niger state killing 21 people, Daily Trust learnt Sunday.
Witnesses said the attack was
said to be as a result of an earlier disagreement between some Fulani youth and
members of the affected community, which resulted in the death of herder.
According to an account, the
herders who maintained a settlement near the community were offered land to
farm on the agreement that certain percentage of the proceed goes to the
village head.
Our correspondent learnt that
disagreement ensued when the herders failed to remit the agreed percentage this
year, while claiming that the land in question now belongs to them.
Irked by the death of one them, the
herders were said to have reached out for support from their kinsmen elsewhere
and launched an attack on the community mosque, when Muslim faithful were
observing their early morning prayers.
Malam Mairo Mohammed told our
reporter on phone that the attackers killed everybody in the mosque, including
the Imam.
Women and children who were woken
by the commotion were said to have flee in different direction with some of
them sustaining injuries in the process.
The state police command public
relation officer, DSP Bala Elkana confirmed the report said 20 people were
killed during an early morning prayers.
He said the attack was a reprisal
to an earlier killing of a herder by the villagers. The killing of a herder was
managed but it appears they were not satisfied and decided to retaliate, DSP
Elkana stated.
According to him eight people
sustained various degrees of injuries during the attack and a recuperating in a
nearby hospital.
He however mobile policemen have
been deployed to the trouble community, while Department of the State
Security Service and officers if the
command’s Criminal Investigation Department were also on ground to keep peace
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