Umar Salihu, the head of Woro village in Kwara State, has revealed that the terrorists who attacked his village on Tuesday operated about 10 hours and killed many innocent villagers with many injured before security operatives came.
Disclosing this during an interview on ARISE News, yesterday, he said distress calls to authorities were made shortly after the attack began about 5p.m., but soldiers only arrived about 3a.m., the following morning.
Hear him: “I called about 5p.m., but they did not come until about 3a.m. That was from 5p.m., to about 3a.m. That is about 10 hours.
“The military did not attack them. The bandits had gone when the military came. The plane did not engage them. They did not interdict. They did not drop any munition on them.”
Salihu revealed as well that the community had been left vulnerable since the soldiers stationed there were withdrawn following an earlier attack.
“Initially, we had a military base there. We had about 15 soldiers there. About three to five months ago, they attacked the soldiers. Since then, they evacuated them. We have no security presence in that area.
In all, he believed that sensitive intelligence may have been compromised because he had earlier reported a threat letter to security agencies.
“When they brought the letter, they brought it directly to me. That night, I sent the letter to the Department of State Security, DSS in Kaiama.
“The following day, I took the letter myself to the Emirate Council. They photocopied it. In that process, I think they lost the appropriate contact,” he added.
Speaking further, Salihu said the attackers belonged to the Mamuda terrorist group, adding that the violence followed the community’s rejection of their ideology.
“Exactly. Our people are not ready to take that ideology. I think that is what made them angry to come and attack the communities,” he said. The people they killed are mostly Muslims. About 95 per cent are Muslims and five percent are Christians.”
According to a Vanguard report, Defence Headquarters, DHQ, said troops were promptly dispatched to dominate the whole area with robust patrols and surveillance among other security measures for about two weeks.
