From John Adams, Minna
The Lakurawa terror group has hoisted its flag at Kemenji, in the Borgu sector of Kainji Lake National Park in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State.
The group, numbering about 200 according to a local source in the area, arrived on Sunday in about 68 motorcycles, with each motorcycle carrying between two and three members of the group.
“We did not know where they came from, but they told us that they are the Lakurawa sect and that they have come to help their members who are constantly being harassed,” a villager told our correspondent by phone on Tuesday.
Our source said that their first point of call was Olli River, where they hijacked some local boat drivers and ordered them to ferry them across to Awuru community in Borgu Local Government Area.
The group, which our source also said was fully armed with AK-47 rifles and other dangerous weapons, ordered the local boat operators to ferry them across to Awuru community or the entire community would be wiped out.
They were ferried in groups to avoid a mishap, even though they warned the drivers that any mishap would have heavy consequences for the community.
It was further gathered that the group proceeded to Kada Olli village, from where a masked man on a motorbike appeared and led them into the forest near Kemenji village, in the Borgu sector of Kainji Lake National Park.
While on their way to their destination, the sect was said to have slaughtered three men they met working on their farms without any provocation and shot a woman in the head, who died instantly.
Their bodies were evacuated later by the community after the terrorists had gone.
According to our source, security agents in the area were alerted to the movement of the terrorists, and this prompted aerial surveillance by a helicopter on Monday after the sect had disappeared into the forest.
The arrival of the Lakurawa sect in the state comes four years after the dreaded Boko Haram sect hoisted its flag in Kaore in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
It will be recalled that the immediate past Governor of the state, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello, had in 2021 confirmed that the Boko Haram sect had hoisted its flag in Kaore and some other communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
He warned then that the terrorists were trying to make Kaore their home and headquarters, like they did in Sambisa Forest, stressing that “the danger is that while Sambisa Forest is several kilometres away from Abuja, Kaore is only a two-hour drive to Abuja.”
This, he warned, would make the federal capital unsafe if nothing urgent was done to curtail the situation.
There is no official statement from either the government or the state police command on this latest development.
