BY ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto
Yet to be apprehended terrorists, otherwise called bandits, in the late hours of Sunday, May 8, 2022 shot five persons in Takakume village of Goronyo local government area in Sokoto State.
The perpetrators, according to accounts of the locals, are Fulani people who have stayed with them for a while and who they trusted.
Having suffered attacks in the past and another aborted one recently, the locals of Takakume village like most of their counterparts had formed a vigilante group to ward off the bandits and defend themselves.
On Sunday night when the bandits struck, the vigilantes repelled them leading to the death of one of their members whose corpse the locals recognised as one of the Fulani boys whose parents and grandparents they know.
Two of the bandits also sustained gunshot wounds from the locals and were abandoned by their members within Gundomi forest from where they were retrieved by the locals and handed over to security agents the next day as confirmed by a reliable sources.
Speaking to our Correspondent on the development, one of the bereaved locals, said, they are still in shock over how those they lived together with for years would wake up overnight and begin to attack them without any provocation.
“These people are Fulanis that have lived around our community for ages. We lived in peace. Though, other villages that have suffered attacks continued to warn us about these people, we refused to take them serious because we trusted them as our neighbours. But Alas, we were all wrong. They attacked and killed our loved ones mercilessly.”
Expressing worry over how the Eastern Senatorial axis of Sokoto State has become a theatre of gory tales orchestrated by these bandits lately, another local wrote on his Facebook wall that the killing of four innocent women and one man was the worst form of barbarism.
The message as he coined it and captured by our Correspondents reads, “What happened in Takakume on the night of Sunday, 8th May, 2022 was one of the most horrific displays of barbarism by Fulani bandits that attacked the peace loving community.
“Five women and a man were lined up and shot for no reason by persons who lived around their community. Takakume is the only settlement in that area where Fulani were free to enter and go out without fear of being attacked.
“They have betrayed the trust. May Allah bring a quick end to these bloodlettings”.
Efforts to get police confirmation at the time of filing this report was unsuccessful as the State Police Spokesperson promised to call back but never did.
Goronyo local government council chairman, Hon Abdulwahab Yahaya also did not pick up his call and did not return it either.
