At least 46 villagers were killed within a week after bandits launched a punitive expedition against two Kebbi villages.
On January 14, a band of heavily armed men stormed Dankade town in Danko Wasagu Local Government Area of Kebbi State, killing at least 17 residents and abducting many more in a punitive expedition.
The residents had refused to pay a protection levy of N25 millon imposed by the terrorists, survivors of the attack told PREMIUM TIMES.
For nearly three years, residents of this town had lived under the authority of terrorists operating in Akao, a small village on the state’s border with Zamfara. The bandits, largely inspired by Bello Turji, a notorious banditry kingpin, are the lords in the ungoverned axis.
During the raid, the bandits shot randomly at defenceless citizens and set houses and farm stores on fire in an orgy of violence that lasted several hours.
Pay N25m Protection Levy or die
The bandits had imposed a monthly protection levy on Dankade town, which the hapless residents had been paying through their village heads, local sources told PREMIUM TIMES.
The bandits raise millions of naira monthly from the illegal taxes, from which they procure ammunition to sustain their reign of terror. This had been going on since 2020.
In December 2021, the bandits upped the levy, imposing N5 million each on K’lanko, K’Daba, Kurgiya, Ragaam and Dankade, five neighbouring villages in the troubled area. They tasked the village heads to ensure payments before the end of the year.
“Particularly what they want those villages to do is that after paying the N5 million each, they should give them access to their wives and daughters,” Bamaiye Aniko, a human rights activist with deep understanding of the crisis in the area, told PREMIUM TIMES.
“And secondly, they want to take the villagers’ animals anytime they want. That’s the barbaric conditions they gave them.”
However, feeling pressed to the wall, the frustrated villagers revolted against the new decrees.
Carnage in broad daylight
Around 3 p.m. on Friday January 14, the bandits emerged from their forest base in Akao and crossed into Dankade through a dried bed of a river on the Kebbi-Zamfara boundary. Their mission was to punish the villagers for their rebellion.
The villagers fled into the bush on sighting the gun-wielding men. But not everyone escaped. Fourteen were caught hiding in a room, whom the bandits promptly shot or slaugthered, PREMIUM TIMES gathered from the accounts of the survivors of the attack.
Four persons found in another house were also killed, taking the total of lives lost in the broad daylight massacre to 17.
‘Many kidnapped, burnt to death’
The bandits also herded dozens of other villagers that they had spared death into their vehicles and drove away with them. PREMIUM TIMES could not ascertain the number of persons abducted in that incident.
Survivors who spoke with our reporter in telephone interviews said the village head, Umaru Dutse, was among those abducted.
“Some of the abducted people were killed and burnt. The families were not even allowed to recover the corpses,” Mr Aniko told PREMIUM TIMES.
His claim was corroborated by several locals who do not want to be named for fear of becoming targets of new attacks. “Nobody can say the number of persons abducted. It will be after some time before people will begin to look for their relatives,” one of them said.
However, claims that about 50 persons were killed altogether in Dankade town have been debunked by the police.
Two soldiers, one police officer killed
Although he was silent on the civilian casualty, the spokesperson of the police in the state, Nafi’u Abubakar, in a statement said two soldiers and a police officer were killed that day at Dankade town.
“On hearing of the invasion, police patrol teams mobilised to the villages and engaged them in a gun duel resulting in the loss of one of our police officers and two army personnel,” he said.
PREMIUM TIMES obtained a picture of the fallen police officer, identified as Garba Ibrahim.
Gory photos, ghost community
Locals also sent several pictures taken in the village after the attack to PREMIUM TIMES. One picture shows scores of blood-soaked corpses lying on the floor. In another, some victims whose throats were said to have been slit are seen in sitting positions they were placed as the bandits watched them bleed to death.
Also, a video clip shows the level of damage caused by the attack. The video shows a ghost Dankade community. Hundreds of the residents have fled their homes, relocating to other towns in the state and internally displaced persons (IDPs) camps.
Sani Ibrahim, a survivor of the attack, said bandits have made life miserable in Dankade and its communities for over three years.
Speaking in an exclusive video recording he shared with PREMIUM TIMES, Mr Ibrahim said he lost his entire family to the attack, as his house and other properties were burnt to dust.
“The bandits prevented us from working on our farms close to the river. We tried to stop them but they overpowered us; they killed and displaced as many as they could, and burnt many properties,” he said with tears in his eyes. “My house was the first to be burnt in the community. I don’t have any other clothing apart from this one on me. I lost my family. If not because it is bad to curse the government, I would have said ‘God’s woe be upon them.”
29 kidnapped in Ayu not reported
Four days after the carnage of January 14 in Dankade, the bandits raided Ayu, a community in Danko Wasagu Local Government Area of the state, and abducted 29 villagers into the forest. From contacts with local sources, PREMIUM TIMES was able to compile the names of the victims of the unreported abduction.
The victims are: Abubakar Gago, Kurma Abdullahi, Yusuf Barau, Sa’idu Garba, Ubaida Halidu, Rukaiyya Halidu, Zuwaira Halidu, Hauwa Halidu, Jamila Usman, Nafisa Garba, Jummai Adamu, Shamsiya Ibrahim, Ramat Sa’idu Muhammu, Larai Garba, Suwaiba Sani, Masa’udu Yakubu, Halima Garba, Hamisu Musa, Lanira Hamisu, Umaima Hamisu, Abdullahi Hamisu, Jummai Hamisu, Asama’ u Hamisu, Iliyasu Adamu, Ibrahim Wakaso, Garba Isah, Tukur Ladan, Garba Ladan and Larai Ladan.
A people left to suffer
Unlike cases in other North-west states, attacks in rural Kebbi are hardly reported in the media. Over 200 lives were lost to banditry in the state in 2021 alone, PREMIUM TIMES’ investigaton revealed.
In June 2021, anguished youth waylaid the convoy of Governor Atiku Bagudu in Waje area of the state. Mr Bagudu was returning from Danku Wasagu Local Government Area where gunmen had slaughtered about 100 residents of Gaya, a community in the area, and displaced hundreds of villagers.
But, rather than allow him listen to the protesters, security agents attached to the governor’s convoy attacked them, causing more mayhem, according to a local newspaper in the state.
“Why are his soldiers shooting at us? Why can’t they go and face the bandits? Why flexing muscles at harmless protesters?” one of the youth was heard saying in a video. “He should resign if he cannot protect the lives of people he has sworn to protect.”
However, the Kebbi State Commissioner for Information, Tanko Ayuba, said the government was collaborating with well-meaning individuals to assist victims of attacks, according to the Guardian newspaper.
“No government or human being will not be touched by what is happening in Zuru Emirate,” the Commissioner said. “The governor is deeply troubled by the development and he is putting in measures to assist the security personnel on the ground with more logistics and other support.”