Sophia Michaels
Suspected Boko Haram members have once more attacked Lantan village in the Shiroro local government area of Niger state, resulting in the deaths of three individuals and multiple injuries.
Besides the killing and those wounded, the dreaded members also burnt down houses including barns they came across within the village.
This terrifying development has led the villagers directly affected to flee their homes.
Vanguard correspondent reliably gathered that the villages greatly affected by yesterday’s attack are Lantan, Makuba, Rumuchi, Allawa, Chukuba, Kusasu.
After the killing, the armed men were said to have moved from house to house, ransacked them, made away with handy valuables, and burnt down all the houses they came across including food stuffs kept in the rooms.
Dependable sources told Vanguard that the three persons were gunned down on their way back to the village to go and fetch food for their family members who were at the Internally Displaced Camp, (IDP) in Erena in Shiroro local government area of the state.
One of the residents of the area who wanted anonymity confirmed the attack on the villages to Vanguard.
“The attack was sudden. Nobody envisaged it. The victims were shot on their way back to the village to go and get food for their families who had been in the IDP Camp for some time and short of foodstuffs.
“Unlike before, they allowed us to carry corpses of our people for burial and they have been buried accordingly.
“As of now, the gunmen have burnt down three villages and ended up burning down shops and all the food barns within the villages raided and warned the villagers not to come back into the villages or else, they will be killed,” he declared.
Efforts to get more facts and confirmation from the Public Relations Officer of the state Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police,(DSP) Wasiu Abiodun proved abortive as his phone could not be reached.
However, the former chairman of the local government area who also wanted anonymity confirmed the incident.
According to him, “The gunmen are more dreaded now than before. They gun down anybody they come across on their way.
“They seem not to be much more interested in kidnapping and later demanding for ransom but they now kill their victims and also set houses and foodstuffs they come across on fire,” he declared.
The former chairman said the armed men now invade the communities at will, killing and destroying everything they see since there is no longer a military presence stationed in the areas.
Meanwhile, residents of the villages especially Latana, Bassa, Allawa, Ibuprofen, Kpadna Makuba, Chukuba, and Kusasu among others have completely fled the area for safety.
The former local government chairman then appealed to both State and Federal governments to reconsider bringing back Military Security Posts to the communities for the safety of the people.
It would be recalled that twenty persons from the Bassa community were massacred just last Thursday by the suspected terrorists out of which ten were beheaded.
