Kwara State has once again been thrust into mourning following a brutal attack on the Woro and Nuku communities in Kaiama Local Government Area, where over 100 villagers were reportedly killed by armed assailants.
By Abdulrahman Aliagan, Abuja
Kwara State has once again been thrust into mourning following a brutal attack on the Woro and Nuku communities in Kaiama Local Government Area, where over 100 villagers were reportedly killed by armed assailants.
The attack, described as a massacre, has drawn widespread condemnation and renewed calls for immediate, decisive action from both the state and federal governments.
According to the Punch report on the massacre, the violence comes amid a troubling surge in banditry and extremist attacks across rural Nigeria. It is part of a wider pattern of insecurity affecting several states including Kwara, Katsina, Niger, Kaduna, Sokoto, and Zamfara, where hundreds have been killed and many more abducted in recent weeks.
Former Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki described the attack on Woro as a “national disaster”, warning that the scale of killings in Kwara had outstripped the capacity of the state government alone to contain. Saraki urged President Bola Tinubu to deploy additional federal troops and security resources in the affected areas and to establish a sustained security presence to deter further violence.
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has accused the Federal Government of ignoring repeated security warnings prior to the attack, asserting that intelligence of impending violence was available for months but left unaddressed.
The party is demanding an independent investigation, humanitarian relief for survivors, enhanced intelligence sharing, and broader reforms to Nigeria’s security architecture.
Kwara State’s governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, while condemning the killings as a “cowardly expression of terror,” also suggested the massacre was driven by extremist motivations rather than ordinary banditry.
Preliminary findings, he stated, indicate that the victims were targeted for resisting an imposition of a foreign ideology, underscoring the complex nature of these attacks.
This latest atrocity adds to an already grim pattern of insecurity in Kwara, where schools have been abandoned due to fear of attacks, and residents of several local government areas face persistent threats from armed groups. Previous incidents, including deadly assaults in Eruku and other rural communities, have forced teachers and students to desert schools and have displaced entire populations.
This wave of violence highlights a deepening security crisis that threatens not only life and property but also education, economic activity, and social cohesion in Kwara State.
The situation demands immediate deployment of enhanced federal security forces — including army, police, and intelligence units — to secure rural and vulnerable communities, establishment of permanent security bases in hotspot areas to deter further incursions and attacks, improved intelligence gathering and sharing mechanisms between federal and state agencies and emergency humanitarian relief such as food, medical support, trauma care, and shelter — for displaced persons and victims’ families.
There is need also for increased community engagement and protection strategies to build local resilience against armed threats.
The Federal Government of Nigeria, alongside the Kwara State government must abandon reactive approaches and adopt proactive, strategic, and sustained security interventions.
The lives of innocent citizens, the stability of communities, and the future of the state depend on urgent and coordinated action.
