The entire Kurama Chiefdom in Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State has been plunged into uncontrollable mourning as terrorists holding thirteen residents, including an ECWA pastor, have issued a chilling ransom demand of Five Hundred Million Naira (N500,000,000) – a sum the traumatised communities say is impossible to raise.
Two weeks after gunmen stormed the sleepy villages of Gidan Yawa, Maiyamma, Jantsauni, and Maidoki around 10:30 pm, shooting three people dead and abducting thirty others in a night of terror, the bandits have now reduced their captives to thirteen and delivered their outrageous price for freedom.
“We are finished. These are the breadwinners of their families; farmers, fathers, a pastor, and the bandits are asking for half a billion naira. Where will poor villagers find such money?” wept Mr. Pius Agaji Kyauta, National Publicity Secretary of the Federated Kurama Association.
“Our people are helpless. We have no guns, no soldiers, no money. We are at the mercy of these killers.”
The affected villages, quiet farming settlements on the outskirts of Yarkasuwa, were overrun by suspected armed Fulani bandits who moved from house to house, dragging out men, women and children while firing indiscriminately. The thirteen still in captivity are believed to be those considered most “valuable” by the terrorists.
The Kurama people say they have been abandoned to their fate. Traditional rulers sit in silence, palaces turned into mourning grounds. Mothers whose sons were taken wail openly in the streets. The communities have no means to borrow, no collateral to sell, and no hope of meeting even a fraction of the ransom.
This latest atrocity is only the most recent in a long chain of bloodshed visited upon the Kurama nation. In recent years, the District Head of Garun Kurama, the District Head of Gurzan Kurama, a Catholic priest of Yadin Garun Kurama Parish, the wife and son of the Lere LGA APC Chairman Hon. Jonathan Shekarau, and countless farmers have all been kidnapped or murdered. Many remain in captivity or were killed when ransom could not be paid.
“We beg President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, National Security Adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and our Governor Senator Uba Sani – please come to our rescue,” Mr. Kyauta pleaded, his voice breaking. “Kurama people, Amo, Surubu, Chawai, even Igbos living among us – everyone is a victim. We are tired of burying our people and paying blood money we do not have.”
As night falls over the scarred villages, mothers clutch empty mats where their children once slept, fathers stare at abandoned farms, and an entire chiefdom waits in helpless dread – knowing the next phone call from the bandits could bring either a reduced demand they still cannot meet, or the unbearable news that more lives have been taken because they are too poor to buy them back.
For now, the Kurama nation can only mourn and pray, utterly powerless against the terror that has made their land a valley of tears.