Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, governor of Kwara State, has blamed Islamic fundamentalists for the deadly attack on Nuku and Woro communities in the Kaiama local government area, where at least 75 residents were killed and dozens of houses were razed. The governor said the victims were targeted and massacred for refusing to abandon their moderate Islamic practices and submit to what he described as a “perverted” and extremist doctrine.
The attack, which security sources say began around 6pm on Tuesday, has drawn widespread condemnation and prompted an urgent military response from the federal government. Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, spokesperson of the Kwara state police command, confirmed that heavily armed attackers stormed the rural communities, killing residents and setting homes ablaze before fleeing the area.
Speaking on Wednesday while addressing religious leaders, traditional rulers and security officials at the Kwara government house in Ilorin, Abdulrazaq said preliminary findings indicated that the killings were not linked to banditry or ransom-seeking kidnappings, which have become common in parts of the country. Instead, he said the assault was a deliberate and brutal massacre driven by extremist ideology.
“From the information we’ve been getting, this village refused to succumb to a perverted form of Islamic doctrine,” the governor said. “They aligned under the emirate and were practising the Islamic faith as they understood it. They did not want any alteration to how they pray to God, how they pray to Allah. Because they refused a change in doctrine, they were attacked and massacred.”
Rauf Ajakaye, chief press secretary to the governor, told TheCable that the victims were largely moderate Muslims who resisted pressure from extremists preaching what residents described as a strange and unfamiliar doctrine. According to him, the attackers viewed the communities’ refusal as defiance and responded with extreme violence.
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Abdulrazaq stressed that the nature of the killings marked a dangerous shift in the state’s security challenges. “This is different from what we used to see when people were kidnapped for ransom,” he said. “This was a pure massacre, and it should be condemned by all, irrespective of faith or background.”
The killings have sparked fear across border communities in Kwara, which lies between the North-Central and North-West regions and has increasingly come under pressure from criminal and extremist groups exploiting forested areas and weak security presence.
In response to the attack, President Bola Tinubu ordered the immediate deployment of an army battalion to Kaiama LGA. In a statement issued on Wednesday night, Bayo Onanuga, presidential spokesperson, said the new military formation would lead “Operation Savannah Shield” aimed at flushing out the attackers and preventing further assaults on vulnerable communities.
Onanuga said the president “condemned the cowardly and beastly attack” and described the gunmen as “heartless for choosing soft targets in their doomed campaign of terror.” Tinubu also directed security agencies to work with local authorities and community leaders to restore calm and ensure the safety of residents displaced by the violence.
Security agencies have launched investigations into the attack, while humanitarian concerns are mounting over survivors who have fled their homes. Local officials say relief efforts are being mobilised as residents grapple with the scale of the destruction and the loss of lives in what has become one of the deadliest attacks in Kwara state in recent years.
