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By Israel Bulus
The Adara Development Association has disclosed to Arewa PUNCH that in the first quarter of 2024, 35 security breaches were reported between Adara land in Kaduna and Niger State with over 29 villages attacked, 41 persons killed, 24 injured, and 222 people kidnapped.
The reported also noted that many of the kidnapped have yet to regain their freedom.
In a statement issued on Monday by the National President of the association, Sebastian Barde, stated that, “Over 35 houses were destroyed during the period and the ransom so far confirmed to have been paid totalled N88 million in the first quarter.”
He added, “A breakdown of the impact indicates that Kachia and Kajuru LGAs had 20 and 21 fatalities respectively.
“On abductions, 98, 112, and 12 were kidnapped in Kachia, Kajuru, and Niger State Adara communities, respectively. On ransom so far paid, N23 million, N58 million, and N7 million were paid by Adara communities of Kachia, Kajuru, and Niger State, respectively.”
The National President explained that the latest reports just received more information on attacks – one at Ungwan Machu, Chibiya, Maro Ward on March 31, adding that a woman was killed, while some parts of her body were removed and the bandits refused to allow the body to be taken for burial.
Again, on March 31, Barde lamented that at Ungwan Maigari, Ankwa Ward, Kachia was attacked and six persons were kidnapped, stessing that Gadnaji in Agunu Ward was also invaded and six persons abducted early in the morning of April 3, 2024.
He bemoaned, “We are particularly concerned about the continuing trend of massacres, mass abductions, and outrageous ransoms being extorted from our hapless people. Specific examples include the 11 killed in Ungwan Sako, 13 killed at Gindin Dutse, 29 abducted at Ungwan Sako, 33 abducted at Kwakware, 61 abducted at Buda, 87 abducted at Tantatu, N11 million extorted from Kwakware and N42 million from Ungwan Sako.”
The Adara community, he pointed out, “is suffering and enduring a lot from the intentional and unintentional actions and inactions of the government that has the responsibility of protection of life and property,” saying that “while suffering so much, it amounts to double jeopardy for it to be left overexposed again to the excesses of merciless non-state actors like the rampaging terrorists.”
Barde called on the new government to live up to the expectations of the people and prayed that the emerging trends do not continue so that the government takes appropriate initiatives, strategies, and deliberate efforts to address the challenges and grievances of the Adara community as well as others in the state.
He called on all sons and daughters of Adara nation to distance themselves from the activities of evil elements but ensure vigilance, unity, and synergy in the face of our life-threatening situation, stressing that there is no time for frivolities until their survival and future are secured.
The group president noted further that during the tenure of the immediate past government of Kaduna State, the Adara community was always in the news following the continued and unabated killings and devastation of the people and their land, even as he maintained that the destructions ranged from recurrent massacres in the Adara villages, farms, markets, the sacking and ransacking of rural communities.
Sebastian Barde explained that the abduction and murder of the people escalated to the community’s first class Paramount Ruler, Agom Adara, Dr, Raphael Maiwada Galadima of blessed memory and culminated in the scraping of the First Class Adara Chiefdom against their desire and the arrest and detention of Adara elders.
He stated that the cumulative effect of the situation is that the community has been brought under severe multi-dimensional distress that led to the displacement and desertion of over 112 villages in both the Kachia and the Kajuru LGAs of Kaduna State.
Punch Newspaper
