One of the suspected Fulani herdsmen, Mohammadu Zurai, who attacked the Nimbo Community in Enugu State, killing over 40 people, including women and children, has revealed in chilling details how he and his colleagues carried out the gruesome attack.
Zurai said that the attack on Nimbo Community was a revenge mission. He claimed that six Fulani herdsmen were killed in the past by members of the community and that the government and leaders of the community allegedly did nothing to fish out the killers.
According to Zurai, more than 100 armed Fulani herdsmen from Taraba, Kogi, Benue, Nasarawa, Katsina, Niger and Kaduna States took part in the attack that witnessed the killing of many. They also destroyed buildings. Zurai, 24, and four of his accomplices, namely:
Ciroma Musa, Sale Adamu, Suleiman Laute and Haruna Laute were arrested by operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, IRT, for the killings. Zuarai, a native of Garba Shehu town, Taraba State, said that he was born in Enugu State.
Recollecting how they planned and carried out the attack, Zurai said kolanuts were shared among Fulani leaders, who rear cows around Nimbo community. The kolanuts served as an invitation to join in the attack.
He said: “Our people responded by sending representatives to support the attack. Our meeting was held in Ameke town, Kogi State, two days before the attack. It was actually in Kogi State that we fine-tuned our plan on how to strike.”
Without mincing words, Zurai said that he was the person that took time to video record the killings because he wanted to show the video to his relatives at Ashoka Village, Kogi State, where he lives.
Zurai was arrested when the gory footage of the killing was discovered in his phone by the police in Kogi State.
He was arrested and subsequently transferred to IRT, where he was interrogated. He confessed to having participated in the Nimbo attack.
He mentioned the names of the leaders of the groups that took part in the attack as Alhaji Suddi, Alhaji Kuriya, Alhaji Dula and Ardo Dula.
Zurai said all the names he mentioned are residents of Enugu State.
He further said: “Mallam Adamu, Alhaji Chiroma, Adamu Sarka, Alhaji Botdo, Alhaji Iro Kogi, Alhaji Fanya and a certain Buba, all came from Kogi State to join in the attack. In fact, they were the ones that invited me to join.”
He continued: “A few days before we attacked Nimbo Community, one of my friends, Buba, called me. He said there was trouble and that Fulani people were gathering in the bush. He said they were sharing kolanuts. I left my cows and joined them. Our people had been killed in that community in the past and nothing was done about it.
“We entered Nimbo through the bush path. On our way, I met a man who had been butchered. He lay dead on the ground. I used my phone to video record the scene. I told the dead man that ‘your people had the gut to kill Fulani men, now you are dead.’ Don’t you know that the Fulani own Nigeria? On the way to Nimbo community, I saw an Igbo man who is my friend. He often gave me food whenever I was around the town. I told him to leave the community immediately because Fulani men would slaughter him if they see him. We went through the bush path.”
