The widow of a pastor who was killed by Fulani militias, along with seven other people, in an attack in Bokkos Local Government Area of Plateau State has narrated how the assailants broke into their home and specifically asked for her husband in what she described as a targeted attack.
At the time he was murdered, Pastor Mimang Lekyil was in charge of the Local Church Council (LCC) of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Kwakas-Mushere, Bokkos LGA, when he was attacked and killed inside the pastorium. The assailants also shot his wife, shattering her legs.
While speaking about the attack in a video interview shared on social media on Thursday by conflict journalist Masara Kim Usman, Mrs. Lekyil said that when the attackers burst into their home, they deliberately asked for her husband, indicating that he was their specific target.
In the video, the grieving widow narrated the harrowing moment the Fulani attackers took her husband’s life:
“On the day the Fulani people killed my husband, my sister and her son visited us. They were with us that day. At night, after praying and just about to sleep, my husband went into the bathroom.
“As he was about to come out, suddenly some Fulani boys burst into the house. They were very young children, all armed. There were about five or six of them.
“I whispered to my husband to come inside the room. He asked me what had happened, and I told him that Fulani boys had entered the house. He followed me inside while I held my sister’s hand, and we went into the room.
“As we were going inside, they saw my husband coming out from the bathroom. They confronted him and said, ‘Baba, ka zo’ (Baba, come here). That was the word I heard from them. They said, ‘Baba, let’s go inside the room.’
“My thought was that they were going to allow him to put on his clothes, thinking they wanted to kidnap him. He was not feeling well that night, and the weather was very cold.
“We were still preparing clothes for him when they started shooting. As they were shooting, they closed the door and continued spraying the room with bullets.
“At the same time, they were ordering us to come out. As they were shooting, I was thinking the vigilante group in the community would come to our aid. And there were soldiers around, maybe they would come and rescue us, but they did not.
“The Fulani boys were shooting all around the room, including at the doors.
“I did not even know that they had killed my husband. They also shot at me, shattering my leg. After they finished their mission, they also kidnapped my sister.”
