Eight people have been killed and eight others severely injured following two separate attacks by suspected gunmen at Unguwan Rimi village, Chawai Chiefdom in Kamaru ward of Kauru Local Government Area, and Ungwan Fulani village in Hunkuyi, Kudan Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Channels TV reported that the Kauru attack comes almost two years after peace returned in southern Kaduna, following the non-kinetic peace model initiated by Governor Uba Sani’s administration.
Although the police in Kaduna State are yet to confirm the incident, the Chairman of the Chawai Development Association, Abel Adamu, said in a statement that the gunmen invaded Ungwan Rimi community in the early hours of Monday and started shooting at them.
Adamu claimed that the attackers came from the Maingo community in neighbouring Basa Local Government Area of Plateau State, following a crisis in that community that later spilt over to Kauru in Kaduna State, which led to the killings.
He commended Governor Uba Sani’s unwavering commitment to restoring peace and security in Southern Kaduna for two years.
However, the Chawai Development Association Chairman called on security agencies to step up their investigations, bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice, and ensure peaceful coexistence among local communities, mainly rural areas, which are more vulnerable to attacks.
Similarly, gunmen suspected to be bandits also attacked Ungwan Fulani village in Hunkuyi Local Government Area, shooting a 40-year-old man to death and abducting a 53-year-old businessman, Shehu Hussein.
Commiserating with the families of the victims, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Information, Ahmed Maiyaki, described the latest attack as isolated cases and an overlap of attacks from neighbouring states that share borders with Kaduna.
Maiyaki explained that the entire Kaduna State has been largely peaceful, with isolated cases of attacks in the past two years of Governor Sani’s administration due to implementing the state’s peace model.
“On behalf of His Excellency, Governor Uba Sani, we want to commiserate with the families of the deceased and those who were abducted. Sadly, the Governor is pursuing the Kaduna Peace Model at this critical time. But I want to say that as a government, the attacks in Kauru and Hunkuyi are isolated cases,” the commissioner said.
“Apart from being isolated cases, these communities are border communities with other states. Kauru borders Plateau State, and Katsina State borders Hunkuyi in Kudan in the northern part of Kaduna State.”
“The Kaduna Peace Model is empirical, has worked, and has ended attacks in many of these communities. For instance, our quick win in Birnin Gwari after successfully implementing the Kaduna Peace Model has led to the reopening of markets in Birnin Gwari communities and agricultural activities in Kauru and Hunkuyi.
“But as long as the neighbouring states are not keying into the model, adopting the Kaduna Peace Model, we will still be witnessing incidents like this. It must be an integrated approach.
“While Kaduna is working very hard to implement this in the state, you have an overlap of these insecurities from neighbouring states coming into our communities.
The governor has been working very closely with the NSA office to explore integrating the Kaduna Peace Model into the neighbouring states and all high-risk security locations.
“So that whatever you do in Kaduna will be effective in other states, so that we don’t overlap with states that border Kaduna.”
Meanwhile, the Commissioner said that the governor has ordered security agencies to locate the attack’s perpetrators and bring them to justice.
