14 killed, houses burnt in fresh Kaduna attack

*As 15 more abducted students of Baptist High School regain freedom

At least fourteen people have been killed in a fresh attack at Mado village, Mabushi in Atyap Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

Some houses were torched in the attack launched on Saturday night.

Commenting on the incident, the Chairman, Atyap Chiefdom Peace and Security Partnership Committee (ACPSPC), Mr. John Bala Gora, wondered the reason for the incessant attacks despite efforts at restoring peace.

He also renewed his appeal to security operatives to redouble efforts to secure the “defenceless and peace loving people of the chiefdom”.

In a reprisal attack, a Fulani settlement in Kankada, Madakiya District in Bajju Chiefdom of Zangon Kataf Local Government Aarea, was completely burnt down on Sunday morning.

Halima Haruna, a female resident of the torched settlement, who was rescued and taken to Zonkwa Divisional Police Station, told newsmen that the attackers surrounded their community in the early hours of Sunday.

A wife to the Ardo of Kankada, Haruna, said she saw two corpses, a man and a woman, on her way to hide somewhere.

“We were forced to run and hide somewhere while some of our people ran to the bush for their safety.”

“We don’t know what happened to them. As I am speaking with you now, we spent three hours before the security arrived and took us to the Police Station here in Zonkwa. Our houses were totally razed,” she said.

She said the attackers told them that they want to take revenge for what happened to them on Saturday night somewhere around Samaru Kataf, “which we know nothing about.”

In the past one week, four villages in Atyap chiefdom have come under separate attacks with scores killed, many injured and several houses burnt.

Confirming both the incidents, Police Public Relations Officer, Kaduna State, ASP Muhammed Jalige, said policemen have been deployed in the attacked community.

He called on the people of Zangon Kataf in particular, and the people of southern Kaduna in general, to stop taking laws into their hands.

Meanwhile, fifteen more abducted students of Bethel Baptist High School, Maraban Damishi, Kaduna State, have regained their freedom, after 48 days in captivity.

Rev. John Hayab, the state Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, said this when he spoke with newsmen in Kaduna on Sunday.

“Fifteen more students were released on Saturday night and 65 students are still with the bandits,” he said.

It would be recalled that bandits in the early hours of July 5, invaded the school and kidnapped an unspecified number of students.

Mohammed Jalige, spokesperson for the police command in the state, also confirmed the release of the students.

Jalige, an assistant superintendent of police, however, said that the police were not in the picture of whether ransom was paid by the parents before the students’ release or not.

“We are not aware of that,” he said.