Three people have reportedly been killed in an attack by local scavengers, known as ‘baban bolas,’ on residents of the Byazhin community in Kubwa, Bwari Area Council of the FCT. The victims included two women and a young boy.
An eyewitness, Jessica Adam, recounted that the incident began on Tuesday evening when a ‘baban bola’ attempted to steal a woman’s pot of soup. He was stopped and beaten by her neighbors and passers-by. The angered scavenger left and later returned with his colleagues around 8 PM, armed with machetes, clubs, and stones. They attacked residents indiscriminately, killing the woman whose pot of soup was the initial target.
Unsettled by the previous night’s violence, the ‘baban bolas’ returned on Wednesday morning, causing further havoc and killing another woman and a boy.
“They killed two people yesterday,” Ms. Adam told Nigeria Info. “The community has been in chaos since yesterday. The crisis continued this morning when they killed somebody again. So far, three persons have been killed and many injured. The police intervened and restored normalcy, but no arrests were made. The police have intensified their patrol in the Byazhin area of Kubwa to prevent them from regrouping.”
The FCT Commissioner of Police, Bennett Igweh, confirmed the attack but stated that only one person was critically injured with a machete. However, Nigeria Info saw a corpse with a large cut to the head and a nearly severed wrist.
