The head of Woro village in Kwara State, Umar Salihu, has alleged that terrorists attacked his community for nearly ten hours before security forces arrived, resulting in scores of deaths and the razing of the village.
Speaking during an interview on ARISE News on Tuesday, Salihu said the attack began around 5:00 p.m., and that repeated distress calls were made to security authorities shortly after. However, he claimed that soldiers only arrived at about 3:00 a.m. the following morning.
I called about 5 p.m., but they did not come until about 3 a.m. That was from 5 p.m. to about 3 a.m. That is about 10 hours,” Salihu said.
According to the village head, by the time the military arrived, the attackers had already fled, and no confrontation took place.
The military did not attack them. The bandits had gone when the military came,” he stated.
Salihu also said there was no air interdiction during the assault, alleging that military aircraft did not engage the attackers.
The plane did not engage them. They did not interdict. They did not drop any munition on them,” he said.
He further alleged that the community had been left exposed after soldiers previously stationed in the area were withdrawn following an earlier attack on the military base.
Initially, we had a military base there. We had about 15 soldiers. About three to five months ago, they attacked the soldiers. Since then, they evacuated them. We have no security presence in that area,” Salihu explained.
He added that the absence of security personnel made the community vulnerable to repeated attacks.
That gave them the opportunity to come anytime, enter anytime, and do whatever they like.”
Salihu also claimed that sensitive intelligence may have been compromised, noting that he had earlier reported a threat letter to security agencies before the attack.
The village head identified the assailants as members of the Mamuda terrorist group, alleging that the attack followed the community’s refusal to accept the group’s ideology.
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.
He also dismissed claims that the attack was religiously motivated, stressing that most of the victims were Muslims.
The people they killed are mostly Muslims. About 95 per cent are Muslims and five per cent are Christians,” Salihu said.
Military, PDP React
Meanwhile, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ) said troops were promptly deployed to the affected areas to carry out robust patrols and surveillance operations for about two weeks. The military expressed shock over what it described as the “cowardly terrorist attacks” on Woro and neighbouring communities in Kaiama.
In a separate reaction, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) accused the Federal Government of ignoring security warnings ahead of the attack, describing the incident as a grim reflection of the worsening security situation in the country.
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