Hundreds of bandits on motorcycles rode into the Dangulbi community in Sokoto State on Sunday morning during Eid-el-Kabir celebrations, opening fire indiscriminately, killing 17 people including visitors who had traveled for the holiday, looting approximately 20 shops, and holding the community under siege for nearly nine hours before withdrawing as darkness fell.
The assault on Dangulbi in Tureta Local Government Area began between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m., residents said. The attackers came armed and numerous, firing as soon as they entered the community and scattering residents into surrounding forests. Among the dead were people identified as Munde, Nagoma, Abdullahi, Danbala, Munden Chana, Muhammadu Dan Amo, Hassan, Abubakar Danbaba, and Yidi Bafillace. Five of the victims were visitors from Adarawa in Gummi Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Two others had traveled from Gidan Gambo in Shagari Local Government Area specifically to celebrate the Sallah holiday with family.
The bandits did not leave after killing. They remained in Dangulbi until approximately 7 p.m., preventing survivors from retrieving or burying their dead. Funeral prayers were not held until after 9:30 p.m. when the attackers finally withdrew.
“They started shooting as soon as they arrived,” a resident who requested anonymity for security reasons told Punch Nigeria. “People ran in different directions in search of safety, but 17 people lost their lives during the attack.”
Local sources said the attackers appeared to have traveled from Bagega village in Zamfara State through Barayar Zaki in Bukkuyum Local Government Area, spending the night in Gizazza village before the Sunday morning raid, suggesting advance planning and deliberate movement rather than a random opportunistic strike.
After Dangulbi, the bandits moved through nearby communities including Kukoki and Birnin Magaji, where residents said additional people were abducted. Those abductees reportedly escaped later that night when a heavy rainstorm created confusion among their captors.
Mass displacement followed. Many residents of Dangulbi and surrounding communities fled to safer areas across Tureta, Shagari, Gummi, and Bukkuyum Local Government Areas. Sokoto State Police Command spokesperson DSP Ahmed Rufai confirmed the incident to Punch Nigeria and said security operatives were working to restore order. He offered no further details.
Plateau State: Eight Dead at a Birthday Party
The same Sunday night that Sokoto buried its dead, gunmen opened fire on a birthday celebration in Gwon-Ajang village in Foron District of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area in Plateau State, killing eight people and wounding 10 more.
The attack began at approximately 10 p.m. when the assailants arrived at the gathering and started shooting without warning. Resident Bishop Iliya, who witnessed the aftermath, described the scene to Premium Times. “The people were gathered for a birthday celebration when the gunmen arrived and started shooting at everything in sight. It is a painful and unfortunate situation for our community,” Iliya said. Those wounded were hospitalized. Security personnel were deployed to the area afterward.
The Barkin Ladi attack was not Plateau’s first this month. On May 11, two young men — Peter Dung, 22, and Amos Danbwarang, 19 — were killed in an ambush in Kyeng village in the Bachi District of Riyom Local Government Area. On May 9, at least 12 people including pregnant women and children were killed in a midnight assault on Ngbra-Zongo village in Bassa Local Government Area. Amnesty International condemned that attack, saying entire families were struck inside their homes and describing it as evidence of the Nigerian government’s failure to address persistent insecurity in Plateau.
On May 5, gunmen attacked Nding Susut community in Barkin Ladi, killing five people including four women and a nine-year-old boy.
Governor Caleb Mutfwang has visited affected communities and reiterated a ban on night mining and night grazing as part of a broader security framework. He has assured residents that perpetrators will be identified and brought to justice. The violence has continued.
Kogi: One Killed, More Than 15 Abducted in Pre-Dawn Attack
In Kogi State, suspected gunmen struck Ayegunle Bunu in Kabba-Bunu Local Government Area at approximately 2:25 a.m. Monday, killing one person, injuring another, and abducting more than 15 people before fleeing with their captives to an unknown location.
The Egbe Mekun Parrot, a community newspaper covering Kogi West, confirmed the attack and said the assailants operated for several minutes before withdrawing. Among those taken were a man and a woman whose identities had not been confirmed. The remaining victims were passengers aboard a commercial bus that the gunmen intercepted as it passed through the community.
The attack in Ayegunle Bunu came less than 24 hours after the Kogi State Government suspended the Echane Festival in Ebiraland, citing credible security intelligence that activities connected to the festival could threaten public order. State Commissioner for Information Kingsley Fanwo said Governor Ahmed Ododo directed the suspension as a preventive measure and warned that anyone organizing or participating in festival activities would face legal consequences.
Security agencies in Kogi had been conducting multiple operations in recent weeks. The Nigerian Army’s 12 Brigade rescued kidnapped victims from the Daarul-Kitab Islamic Orphanage in Lokoja following Operation Tiger Paw II. Troops also ambushed suspected terrorists in the Adankolo Forest Reserve in Lokoja, killing one suspect and recovering weapons, ammunition, and communication devices. A suspected terrorist logistics courier was separately intercepted transporting 500 rounds of ammunition concealed in a bag of maize from Obajana toward Niger State.
On Tuesday, the Kogi State Police Command confirmed two people were killed in renewed hostilities between the Itale and Ishi communities in Ibaji Local Government Area, with several homes and food stores destroyed.
No official statement on the Ayegunle Bunu attack had been issued as of filing time. Calls and text messages to Kogi Police Command spokesperson Saliu Afusat were not returned.
Violence on Eid, Insecurity Without Borders
Three states, three attacks, one weekend. The clustering of violence during the Eid-el-Kabir holiday was not incidental. Armed groups across Nigeria’s northwest and northcentral zones have demonstrated across multiple years that religious and public holidays represent operational opportunities rather than pauses. Celebrations concentrate people in predictable places at predictable times, often in communities where security presence is thinnest and where the social disruption of an attack, grieving families, mass displacement, interrupted farming, shuttered shops, is maximized.
The Sokoto attack’s nine-hour occupation of Dangulbi captures something about the current security environment that casualty figures alone do not. Bandits who kill 17 people and then remain in a community for nearly nine hours, preventing burial of the dead, looting shops at leisure, and moving through neighboring villages afterward are not constrained by any serious risk of military interception. They planned the movement across state lines. They stopped overnight. They attacked at midday. They left when they were finished.
The Plateau violence follows a pattern that has persisted across that state’s volatile Barkin Ladi, Bassa, Riyom, and Mangu districts for years, with attacks on farming communities, birthday gatherings, and sleeping families occurring with sufficient frequency that Amnesty International has framed them as evidence of systemic government failure rather than isolated criminal incidents.
Residents in all three states are asking the same question in different local dialects: when does help arrive before people are killed rather than after? The answer from security agencies across all three states this weekend was the same: after. The deployments come after the shooting stops. The confirmations come after the bodies are counted. The investigations begin after the attackers have returned to whichever forest or border crossing sheltered their approach.
The rainy season that residents in Sokoto mentioned with specific dread is approaching. Farming communities that are simultaneously managing grief, displacement, and fear of returning to their own land will not plant what needs to be planted. The security crisis in Nigeria’s northwest and northcentral zones is also a food security crisis, a displacement crisis, and an economic crisis, all of them feeding each other in the same communities that the state has repeatedly failed to protect.
PremuimTimes/Punchng
