The death toll from Saturday’s attack on Zamfara State’s Ruwan-Tofa community has climbed to 23, residents said.
Residents also said they had a hint of the planned attack three days before, and were shocked that the armed bandits attacked the community unchallenged despite alerting the relevant authorities.
Earlier report says at least 10 people were killed in the community attack in the Maru Local Government Area district of Dansadau.
Police also confirmed 10 people have been killed on Sunday morning.
However, residents said some of the wounded people taken to Dansadau Hospital died while some bodies of slain residents were also found in the bush, thus raising the death toll.
As of Sunday evening over a dozen wounded residents were still receiving treatment at Dansadau hospital.
The Saturday attack is the deadliest in three years after bandits attacked the area, said resident Mu’azu Yusuf, who was recently named state governor ‘s special assistant
Mr Yusuf said Ruwan-Tofa had not suffered attacks for three years because of the residents’ courage, unlike other communities in Dansadau district of Maru local government.
He said some gunmen had targeted Ruwan-Tofa three years ago but were repelled when volunteers and the military joined forces to rout the attackers with many of them killed.
He confirmed that residents had wind of the attack on Saturday three days earlier, and passed the information to the authorities concerned. Given the alert, he regretted that little had been done to avoid the attack.
“I specifically called the state’s commissioner for security affairs, Abubakar Dauran, and soldiers in charge of the operations around the area. Also, I informed the traditional ruler in Dansadau but nothing was done,” Mr Yusuf said.
He said that security forces arrived at the village only after the bandits had fled. He said security agents were later involved in the burial of those who were killed in the attack.
Mr Yusuf and other residents confirmed that 23 people were buried, following the attacks, between Saturday and Sunday.
The security commissioner, Mr Dauran, said the government had deployed more security officials to the area to check bandit infiltration from neighboring states of Katsina and Kaduna.
He said 14 people were killed in the Ruwan-Tofa attack, and not 23 people.
The commissioner did not dispute the allegation that the government had residents reporting on intelligence but did not respond to avert the attack.
But he said efforts to protect the residents in the midst of a difficult terrain were continuing.
“It’s not that we didn’t do anything, the area is a bushy terrain and connects Katsina and Kaduna states. The gunmen are now infiltrating the Maru Dansadau axis because of the ongoing operations in Katsina State,” Mr Dauran said.
Military Operation spokesperson Hadarin Daji, Y. A. Ibrahim, did not call back after asking for time to comment on the allegation that they had been tipped about the attack but had failed to act.
He did not respond to several phone calls afterwards, either.
