A newly installed community leader in Kaduna was killed in the early hours of yesterday by gunmen.
The community leader, Isiaku Madaki, was murdered in his residence, at Kakura, in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Kakura, a community predominantly inhabited by the Gbagi tribe, has other tribes with few Fulani settlers who have lived together for decades.
However, it was gathered that 14 other people were killed following alleged reprisals on the neighbouring settlement by aggrieved natives.
A resident of the area, Baban David, disclosed that the deceased was, on Saturday, installed as the Head of the community.
“We all gathered in his residence earlier in the day (Saturday) to rejoice with him over his appointment. However, we were shocked when in the early hours of today (Sunday), we began to hear gunshots.
“We were afraid we could not come out of our houses. Later we were told that the gunmen had killed the community leader in the presence of his wife and family.
“We found his dead body lying on the ground. His wife told us the gunmen broke into their residence and shot him. They did not take anything, neither did they abduct anybody.
Another resident, Mallam Buhari, explained that early in the morning, the natives surrounded their settlement and asked them to leave, accusing them of hypocrisy.
He noted that while they were leaving, they were attacked and some of them killed, adding, “on our way out to the village, we counted four corpses. Later on the bush path, there were bodies of 10 others littered on the ground.”
At the time of filing the report, police were said to have deployed officers and men to the community to ensure law and order.
It was gathered that even though normalcy had returned to the embattled settlement, most people have deserted the area for fear of the unknown.
The police and the state government were yet to react to the incident at the time of filing this report.
Meanwhile, suspected bandits, yesterday afternoon, invaded villages in Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State, where several people were killed and houses and foodstuffs burnt with other valuables.
It was gathered that the gunmen, in several numbers, ransacked the villages and shot several people, while others were inflicted gunshot injuries.
A resident of the affected villages, who gave his name as Ali, confirmed that the bandits attacked Kukawa, Gyanbahu, Dungur and Keram villages where scores of people were killed.
Another eyewitness, Adam Musa, a resident of Kukawa village, said the incident occurred at about 15:04pm and that many were injured, while hundreds of people fled their homes.
He said security operatives were yet to arrive in the villages as at the time of filing this report.
Musa said the gunmen, in different attacks, invaded the villages at about 1pm when the residents were going about their normal activities and started shooting sporadically.
He said the bandits burnt down many houses.
Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Gabriel Ogaba, said he was yet to get details of the attack.
Meanwhile, the State Police Command had barricaded the road linking to the Police Headquarters and Polo over rumours of looming attack.
But the PPRO dismissed the insinuation and said the Plateau is peaceful, especially Jos, the state capital.
He said the Command has adopted a new security strategy in line with the normal routine patrol to checkmate activities of criminals.
