GUNMEN KILL 21 IN NIGER COMMUNITY

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