Kaduna State Government has debunked reports of aerial attack by terrorists against Adara communty in Southern Kaduna, while affirming that 32 people were killed in the attack.
According to the government, the Nigeria Air Force (NAF) helicopter, which was spotted in the communities, arrived there to engage the bandits.
The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Samuel Aruwan, said the government received initial reports from security agencies that bandits attacked the villages of Dogon Noma, Ungwan Sarki and Ungwan Maikori in Kajuru Local Council on Sunday.
While debunking the claims of military complicity, Aruwan explained that, according to reports, the bandits stormed the area in large numbers on motorcycles and proceeded to raze several houses while killing locals. It noted that the helicopter sighted at the area came on rescue mission.
Aruwan added: “The state government wishes to clarify, based on reports received since Sunday, that the bandits killed 31 citizens attacked at the first two locations. They then headed for Ungwan Maikori, where they killed another person and burnt some houses.”
BUT the National President of Adara Development Association (ADA), Awemi Maisamari, has said the air raid by a helicopter aided the bandits.
In a statement last night, he insisted: “I stand on my earlier statement and the report of my people on the killings and attack in the villages. If the government is saying that NAF was at the scene of the attack to confront the terrorists, that is strange. There have been many occasions when distress calls were made, how many times have they come to defend the villagers? Maybe this is the first time, but I am not aware of that.”
Maisamari urged the government and the public “to visit the affected villages and observe the havoc the terrorists inflicted on the people.
He added: “The terrorists had a field day to set houses ablaze and loot several shops. They were not in a hurry to inflict damage and kill our people.”
Meanwhile, the HUMAN Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has carpeted the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) over its failure to deploy the 12 newly-acquired Super Tucano fighter jets in the North West, seven months after a Federal High Court designated bandits as terrorists.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, slammed the military hierarchy, especially NAF, for its tardiness in dealing with terrorists in the North West.
The group said: “While the army and NAF were condoning the heinous killings of bandits, the marauders, now emboldened by the inaction of government, allegedly moved on to deploy sophisticated weapons, including an attack helicopter.”
According to reports, terrorists in helicopter attacked residents of Adara community in the southern part of Kaduna State on Sunday and killed over 30 persons.
Maisamari said the carnage was carried out by Fulani terrorists, who, aside shooting sporadically from the helicopter, were reportedly aided by assailants on the ground, who came on 150 motorcycles carrying three armed fighters each.
“The death toll on Wednesday morning was 32, as villagers combed surrounding bushes for more bodies. Seven were found decomposing,” he said, adding that an Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in the area was destroyed.
Onwubiko described the killing in Adara as unfortunate and totally avoidable, “if the military didn’t ignore intelligence and telltale signs.”
Sympathising with the bereaved and praying for their consolation and comfort, HURIWA noted: “This new dimension of helicopter being used by Fulani terrorists is shocking, but not unexpected, as there have been bold signs over the place, going by the chronology of the sophisticated terrorism that banditry by Fulani blood-letters have evolved into.
“It is ironical that the terrorists are now operating on air, shelling houses and killing innocent residents, when the military, who should decimate the them through air raids have failed to bombard them for reason best known to them. Even the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, indicted the military for failing to act on intelligence regarding the precise locations of the Fulani terrorists, even when the military is monitoring their telephone conversations, and now they are on the air. Who gave them the helicopters?”
HURIWA recalled that a frustrated el-Rufai, in March after the train attack, accused the military of knowing the location of the bandits wreaking havoc in the state but refusing to bomb their hideouts.
