Kwara State Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq has attributed the recent deadly attack on communities in the state to Islamic fundamentalists enforcing an extreme doctrine.
According to the Nigerian Red Cross, 162 people were killed on Wednesday, February 4, when gunmen stormed Nuku and Woro communities in Kaiama Local Government Area of Kwara State, setting several houses ablaze during the assault.
Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, police spokesperson in Kwara, said the attack began around 6pm on Tuesday.
Providing further details, Rauf Ajakaye, chief press secretary to the governor, told journalists that the victims were moderate Muslims who were killed for “refusing to surrender to extremists who preached a strange doctrine”.
While addressing religious and security leaders at the Kwara Government House, Abdulrazaq said preliminary findings showed that the attack was driven by ideological intolerance rather than criminal motives.
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“From the information we’ve been getting, this village refused to succumb to a perverted form of Islamic doctrine,” Abdulrazaq said.
“They aligned under the emirate, abiding by the Islamic faith. They didn’t want an alteration to how they pray to God, how they pray to Allah. Because they refused a change in the doctrine, they were attacked and massacred.
“It’s different from what we used to see when persons were kidnapped for ransom. But this was just a pure massacre and should be condemned,” the governor added.
In response to the killings, President Bola Tinubu directed the deployment of an army battalion to Kaiama Local Government Area.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night, Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesperson, quoted Tinubu as saying the new military command would lead “Operation Savannah Shield” to “checkmate the barbaric terrorists and protect defenceless communities”.
Onanuga said the president “condemned the cowardly and beastly attack” and described the assailants as “heartless for choosing soft targets in their doomed campaign of terror”.