Renowned Nigerian academic, columnist and public intellectual has narrated how suspected Boko Haram-linked terrorists carried out a deadly assault on a rural community in Kwara State, killing at least 170 people in what he described as a massacre that hit “my backyard.”
The scholar, Farooq Kperogi, disclosed this in an emotional first-person account, explaining that the attacked community in Kaiama Local Government Area shares close geographic, cultural, and historical ties with his own Baruten Local Government Area.
“I am using the last ounce of energy left in me to type this,” Kperogi wrote, saying the community was “bleeding from an unspeakably sanguinary terrorist assault that has so far claimed the lives of at least 170 people, and counting.”
According to information he received from locals, the attack took place in Woro village, beginning on Sunday evening and stretching into the early hours of the following day.
Kperogi said the violence was allegedly triggered after the village head, Alhaji Salihu Umar, reported a suspicious letter from terrorists who claimed they intended to visit the community to preach.
“The village head suspected that the terrorists, known to locals as Mamuda, were up to no good, so he did what all law-abiding people would do: report to the security forces,” he stated.
However, the academic said residents now believe the attackers had advance knowledge of the report, raising fears of possible compromise.
“The terrorists were incensed that the village head had the temerity to report them to the security forces and decided to go on a mass murdering spree in retaliation,” he said, noting that the group had carried out similar attacks in the area in the past.
Beyond the killings, Kperogi revealed that homes were destroyed, residents abducted, and the village head’s personal SUV was seized, while his whereabouts remained unknown at the time of the report.
“The photos of slaughtered and mutilated bodies of innocent men, women and children that my people shared with me have immobilized me and will probably haunt me for days,” he wrote.
He further recalled that in recent weeks, similar attacks had occurred in parts of Borgu axis of Niger State, where hundreds of civilians were reportedly killed.
Condemning the violence, Kperogi questioned the sheer brutality of the attacks, asking: “What kinds of homicidal beasts spill innocent blood just for the hell of it?”
He called on the Federal Government to urgently scale up security operations across the Borgu region, spanning Kebbi, Niger, and Kwara states.
“The government must act to stop this insensate cruelty once and for all. Security must be beefed up across the entire Borgu area,” he said.
Kperogi also cautioned against the politicisation or misrepresentation of the tragedy, stressing that the victims were Muslims, not members of any targeted religious group.
“All deaths should worry anyone who makes even the slightest pretense to humanity,” he concluded.
