It is extremely compelling. There’s no two-way to it. Kwara State is being violently thrown-up. This is persistent. There is no viable alternative. We just have to return to the state.
The old West Central State is left all alone onto itself. To rot and rotten. Even to extinction. The state is selflessly grasping for its endangered life. While its governing authorities are selfishly looking the other way.
They care not a hoot. If the state sinks or perishes outright. Whatever happens or does not happen. They remain unrepentantly unperturbed, unconcerned.
We can’t afford to toe their destructive path. We refuse take our eyes from that drowning state. No human, dead or alive should. Only a government of ours will risk feigning ignorance.
It’s terrifying and appalling. Totally out of place. Not now that it’s turned the epicentre of terrorism. And Woro, its hitherto almost unknown community, the newfound killing field.
Disgusting to comprehend. Nearly 200 of its residents massacred. In just one deadly fell swoop! Sent to the world beyond. It’s unexplainable.
Since ages past. Their mode of operation “changeth not.” Packed full of deceit and heavily loaded with pretence. And of course, wrapped with enduring patience. The Fulani jihadists? They are masters of revenge. They don’t forgive. They don’t let go. So, that they would not forget. That is the dubious stuff they are made off.
In that unscrupulous manner. They swooped on Woro, Kaima Local Government, Kwara State, that Tuesday evening. It was another spectacular performance of what they know how to do the best.
The sequence was frightening. First came the leaflets. Followed by several warnings. All lasting more than five months. Finally, a letter inviting them to an impending “evangelism.”
What followed was better imagined. But it happened. Again, and always, they lied. It was not an evangelism. It was a bloodbath of no small mean. They came, they saw. And they were more than conquerors.
Dateline: February 3, 2026. An hour before sunset, they launched the mayhem. Just as residents were heading home from their farms. This BBC account fits the bill:
“More than 100 armed jihadists dressed in army fatigues rode into the neighbouring Muslim villages of Woro and Nuku, Kwara State on motorbikes – driven by revenge.”
Abdulla Umar Usman is a former teacher and resident of Woro. He was effectively on ground. He didn’t miss a second of the wholesale slaughter. The way he saw it will frighten you:
“They came around 5 pm, (on motorcycles) completely surrounded the community and started shooting from all directions so nobody could escape. They came en masse in the name of religion, and they decided to kill our people.”
Their first port of call; the palace of traditional ruler, Umar Bio Salihu. They didn’t find him at home. They missed their prime target. That enraged them. But the evil in them refused to be frustrated. They have a “viable alternative.”
They decided to pay their costly homage to him this awful manner. Usman confirmed: “Two of his children, who were medical students were slaughtered. Right in front of the house. Then they set it ablaze.”
Salihu’s innocent children fell prey. The blood thirsty jihadists made them to pay the supreme price. The way Fulani jihadists operate! Their dastard thought process is despicable and diabolical.
At that juncture. They went wilder and weirder. They turned the hitherto peaceful Woro farming community upside down. It became a killing field overnight, altogether. And blood flowed ceaselessly.
The “evangelism” was an actual reality. It held as scheduled. But obviously for the devilish reason. Umar Ali is younger brother to Woro traditional ruler:
“During the sermon, there were dissenting voices against the preaching, which infuriated the bandits and prompted them to open fire on the congregation. The angry bandits opened gunshots indiscriminately, killing residents while a few managed to escape.”
Out of the tragic odd movie, came these horror scenes. Chairman, Kaima LG, Alhaji Abubakar Danladi: “The vigilante officers, about 12 of them, were pushed into their office, locked inside and burnt alive after bullets failed to penetrate them. We later saw skulls because their bodies were completely burnt.”
Village Head, Woro, Umar Salihu: “There are some that were burned down in the church. Some, they locked them inside their rooms and set them on fire. Those that were burned inside the church, we cannot identify some; we can’t count the number of people burnt down.”
The Woro debacle didn’t just happen. Neither did it start today. It did long ago. Head, Amnesty International, Nigeria, Isa Sanusi, told BBC: “The jihadists had been leafleting the two villages for the last five months. These communities have been receiving these pamphlets, soliciting them to join the extremist views and preaching by these militants.
“After they see a bit of resistance from the people, they then started sending them warnings. This shows a stunning security failure. We are wondering why this security lapse was allowed to happen, why the authorities could not take action.
“In fact, they even went to the mosque and prayed there. They forced a few people to go and listen to their preaching. That means they had enough time, adequate time to do whatever they liked.”
After the massacre, Salihu showed up. He gave his pre-mayhem narration. Courtesy, Daily Post: “I received the notification on January 10, 2026, around 7.45 from a man who came; he is the Hakimi of one small village about four kilometres from my community.
“According to him, they abducted him and forced him to bring the letter or else they would kill him and that is why he brought the letter to me.
“When the letter got to me, I went to the DSS in our local government headquarters and the following day I took the letter to the emirate council and they wrote a letter in that respect to the various appropriate quarters.
“The content of the letter said they were coming down to preach but there was no date and time, they just said they were coming down to preach.
“We have soldiers staying there but the bandits came over the night and there was gun exchange between the army and bandits; since then, they took away the soldiers and that place has remained open. There is no security presence and that is why they came and spent almost 10 hours.”
Our rulers came up in their habitual elements. Brandishing the usual template reaction. Sad! Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq found time to “race” to Woro and Nuku the following day.
He swore he saw genocide in the killings. Fine. He spoke our mind: “The victims were killed for refusing indoctrination by the bandits.”
He even brought “good tidings” from President Bola Tinubu. His tight schedule would not oblige him a visit. But he struggled to send his words:
“The deployment of a battalion of soldiers under Operation Savannah Shield to flush out bandits in Kaiama LG and the Borgu National Park in Niger State.”
With that, they safely returned that template to the cooler. It’s cooling off in its safe haven. They are not practically doing anything to render the template useless in future. Whatever they said or did not say ended there.
Ask them the latest, the update on the Woro massacre. They will look empty, dump and dull. We have been doing it the same way and manner. Since Boko Haram happened to us in 2009. There has not been any significant shift in our handling of its affairs.
Check. Cross-check. Double-check Even fact-check. The same pattern. Hot at first. Then fizzles out as if nothing ever happens. Our leaders would shout their hearts out, pretending they mean business. Nothing reasonable, tangible happens afterwards. Speedily back to square one. With the same speed we get there abinitio. It has been the same business as usual.
Nothing changes, nothing shifts. We have moved the full circles several times over. We have trod this bumpy path enough. We keep encircling this mountain endlessly. Fire brigade measures all the way.
They are perfectly at home with condolences and funerals. There, they churn out fakeries and falsehoods. Always “on top of the situation.” Vowing to track down the terrorists. They vomit what they never believe. They do it both sides of their lousy mouths.
They expect us to trust them without interrogating theirs words. We should swallow whatever they recklessly throw at us hook, line and sinker. Who does that anymore? The rulers have lost it with us.
It was ridiculously scandalous. Honest and genuine leaders should bury their heads in their arms. And in huge shame. For a band of terrorists. To operate brutally. Unchecked, unrestrained, unchallenged. For 10 straight, unbroken hours! How will our legion of security agencies explain that away? This can’t happen anywhere else but Nigeria.
The jihadists came in the name of Allah, the merciful. But they turned merciless. Preaching the gospel of violence. They butchered, maimed, destroyed, looted, etc. Using the name of the same Allah they desecrated!
We can no longer be deceived. Our rulers are the moles in our midst. They are the infiltrators we must fear, despise and isolated. In a state where a government claims it sits in Ilorin.
Just about 120 kilometres away from Woro. And killer Fulani jihadists held sway. Uninterrupted for 10 dark hours. No help came from there. Or anywhere else!
Before our rulers inadvertently bury the file of Woro mayhem. They should hear this unpleasant update on Woro. It is not near anything palatable.
The jihadists will not let go easily. They returned to the same Kaima LG on Monday. They sent residents panting. They did it with a panic letter, similar to Woro’s.
A source volunteered: “Information reaching me now is that Dunshigogo still under Kaiama LG has been served same letter, like that of Woro by terrorists.
“I understand that businesses are already closing up and people are fleeing en mass. I don’t even know who to call on now that won’t sabotage the lives of these people.”
That’s state of Kwara State presently. Panic, fears, anxiety rule the waves. And government is sadly unforthcoming, reticent and utterly secretive. It stubbornly sticks to its ugly trademarks: mum, mute, dumb, tight-lip and uncommunicative.
Our rulers only speak to 2027 now. And not our hopeless, pitiable plight. Help, Kwara is exposed, unclothed, naked!
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