From Joseph Amedu, Lokoja
No fewer than nine persons were in the late hours of Tuesday night allegedly killed and scores injured by unknown gunmen that attacked Bagana community in Omala local Government Area of Kogi state.
A local who survived by the whiskers the staccato gunshots and who did not want his name in print for the fear of being targeted by the militias told our correspondent that the gunmen invaded a provision shop located in the heart of the village and opened fire, killing four persons on the spot.
He added that the attackers then went on shooting spree in which many people who were running to escape were hit by stray bullets.
He disclosed that he counted five dead bodies from his hiding which included one Alias Barrister, an diesel oil dealer and a dispensary staff of the Local Government Health Center at Ogba , residing in Bagana.
Confirming the incident, the Force Public Relations Officer of the state command, DSP William Aya said one Usman Salifu called the DPO on phone around 9.30pm on Tuesday that gunmen attacked his shop leading to the death of his sales boy, Bashir Sule and three other customers, while scores sustained various degrees of injury.
He added that on receipt of the distress call, the DPO mobilised his men to the scene and evacuated some of the injured to the Hospital for treatment. The force he said, has commenced manhunt to bring the perpetrators to book.
He said peace has returned and assured the people to return home to continue with their legitimate businesses.
Another villager while recounting his ordeal to our correspondent said they were woken up from their sleep by the gunshots as they scampered into the bush for safety.
He lamented at the incessant killings of innocent citizens and wanton burning of their houses by the marauders since 2014 and called on the Federal Government and the Kogi State government and security agencies to come to their aid.
He added that the village had lost over 300 of her citizens and had lost property worth billions of naira to the unending attacks by the militias, allegedly invited from Benue and Nasarawa states.
He said the crises which started between the Agatu militias and Fulani herders from Benue state has rendered the town to a ghost as the efforts by the state government to curtail the carnage proved abortive.
According to him, about five months ago, the same shop which belonged to Musa Salifu one of the sons of an embattled Onu Otutubatu Alhaji Salifu Anyebe, was attacked and he sustained gunshots wounds.
The locals while recounting their ordeal noted that since December 2014 the village was on two occasions violently attacked resulting to the death of scores and burning down of houses.
They said the incessant killings by the militias forced the people to evacuate their families and property from their ancestral homes to become Internally Displaced Persons IDP in neighbouring villages and to some states, lamenting that no sooner that lives have started returning to the community than the orgy of killings resumed again.
According to a local, the bandits abducted and allegedly killed a prominent Hausa Chief, Alhaji Audi Abdullahi and another Chief of Ihankpe at different times.
They explained that the yet to be apprehended bandits also gruesomely murdered some of their children, seven of them, residing outside the state, who came home for Sallah celebrations. The video of their torture to death had since gone viral.
They alleged that the trouble may not have been unconnected with the supremacy battle of who to control resources of the town by the four major tribes , Igala, Hausa, Otutubatu and Ihankpe.
” Bagana , although , a multi ethnic tribes used to be a haven of peace, until the chiefs of Otutubatu and Ihankpe moved their headquarters from Omagede and Patanyi , these villages are more than ten Kilometres from Bagana, the Headquarters of Bagana District of Omala local Government Area.
“The two clans have been on each others jugular in attempt to control economic lives of the village using mercenaries to unleash terror on the village.
“In attempt to control the carnage, the immediate past governor, Captain Idris Wada had severally summoned the chiefs to Lokoja, and warned them to maintain peace, but unfortunately , the warning felled on deaf ears.
” The Governor had stationed detachment of soldiers and mobile policemen to maintain peace, but they too became the casualty as the soldiers lost two of their men and four policemen to the Ak- 47 wielding militiamen.
A community leader Alhaji Ismaila Umar while speaking to our correspondent on phone ,urged Governor Yahaya Bello to establish A naval post and a police post in the village, saying the location of the village on the Bank of River Benue has made it vulnerable to all kind of criminals.
He lamented that the chiefs who were not indigenes of Bagana and whose forefathers had never been a chief in the town would from no where seized the town, using militias to whip every body to order.
However, the District Head and Oga Onu Ife, a third class, Chief Alih Haruna, whom our correspondent gathered had literally abandoned his palace to another village for safety could not be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, the paramount ruler of Omala local Government Area, Onuh Ife (Joogba) HRH Boniface Musa condemned the killings and urged the chairman of the council, Hon. Ibrahim Aboh and Governor Yahaya Bello to enforce the earlier directive to the unauthorised chiefs in Bagana to relocate to their domains.
The paramount ruler explained that as part of peace effort, the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs had summoned all the chiefs from the LGA to Lokoja, the capital and gave a stern directive to the chiefs of Otutubatu Alhaji Salifu Anyebe and Ihankpe’s representative to relocate to their domains at Omagede and Patanyi, respectively.
He wondered why Onu Otutubatu Alhaji Salifu Anyebe has remained adamant as he has violently resisted all peaceful negotiations with him to relocate to his domain.
