- Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, left, Vice President Kashim Shettima, middle, House of Representatives Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, right, consoling some victims of the bombing in hospital recently.
Until the Kaduna village was erroneously bombed by a military drone on December 3 last year, Tudun Biri was a largely unknown community. Besides military forces battling to protect important national assets like the Kaduna International Airport, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) and other institutions in the area against bandits, Tudun Biri was never in the news before the bloody December incident.
Located in Igabi, one of the four metropolitan local government areas that make up Kaduna city, less that 20 kilometres away from the Kaduna seat of power and about five kilometres from the Kaduna International Airport, its inhabitants know not about electricity, tarred road, school or hospital, even as they drink from unhygienic pond and well water.
However, after the unfortunate incident that left 85 people dead and dozens others injured, the village came into international limelight and became a Mecca of sort, attracting visitors from international organisations, the federal and state governments as well as notable individuals.
The military drone had on the ill-fated night dropped its missiles on a large group of Tudun Biri villagers and their visitors who had gathered to mark the annual Maulud Nabbiy celebration. The first bomb, according to the locals, had killed a few people. But as they regrouped to carry the dead bodies and rescue the injured, the second bomb was dropped, killing more people.
At a security council meeting called on Monday, December 4, the General Officer Commanding 1 Division of the Nigerian Army, Maj-General Valentine Okoro, admitted Nigerian Army’s responsibility for the attack, saying that it was carried out in error. According to a government statement issued at the end of the meeting, the GOC said “the Nigerian Army was on a routine mission against terrorists but inadvertently affected members of the community.”
Similarly, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-General Taoreed Lagbaja, who was the first national figure to visit the community after the bomb incident, apologised profusely to the Tudun Biri community leaders, saying: “The Nigerian Army Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) on its routine mission observed movement of people suspected to be bandits, and having trailed them for some time, the decision was taken to strike, based on the observation of some tactics usually employed by bandits.
“Unfortunately, the report we got thereafter revealed that it was innocent civilians in Tudun Biri that the drone carried out the strike on.”
The Chief of Army Staff, who led some principal staff officers of the Army to the village, thereafter prayed for the repose of the victims’ souls at their mass grave before he proceeded to the hospital where he opened the floor of donations to the injured survivors and the community with N10 million.
For days after the incident, cash and kind donations flowed in for the community as different blocs of the government trooped to Kaduna to make their commitment to rebuilding Tudun Biri. Aside the Federal Government’s promise to flag-off its Flak Initiative aimed at rebuilding crisis ridden communities in Tudun Biri, donations by Senate, House of Representatives, Northern Governors’ Forum and others amounted to over N700 million.
The agrarian community was about 200 years ago a settlement of hunters who traversed the area into the Kamuku Forrest in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area in search of animals. But as development improved, the hunters transformed into farmers.
However, since the emergence of banditry which has displaced many farming communities in the troubled local government areas of Chikun, Igabi, Birnin and Giwa in Kaduna Central zone, the people of Tudun Biri, a relatively small community, had resisted bandits’ several moves to sack the village, apparently due to the hunters’ gene in them.
A septuagenarian local in Tudun Biri, Ahmed Adau said: “We the people of Tudun Biri are warriors. We are fighters. Our forefathers were hunters. That is why we are the only village that bandits could not displace in this axis.
“The bandits have tried to displace us, but the more they tried, the more we resisted them.
“They have sacked several other villages around us but we resisted them. That is why people from other smaller villages sacked by the bandits are taking refuge in our community.”
Another resident of Tudun Biri, Comfort Yonana, said when the drone attack occurred, she was scared because she thought it was the bandits they had fought for years that had developed a means of attacking them from above.
Yonana, a grandmother, said: “We have suffered at the hands of the bandits in this village and the bandits too have suffered in our hands. They often come around but our men always repel them. They had suffered casualties here when they attempted to kidnap our kinsmen.
“So, at first, when the community was hit by the bomb on 3rd December, we thought it was the bandits that had developed another means of attacking us.
“We were so heartbroken when we discovered that it was the military drone that bombed our community. But we have accepted it as the will of God and we pray that it does not happen again.
“We have taken the drone attack as the will of God, because since then, a lot of positive things have happened to us. Now the government knows that we exist. Government officials and security men now come to our village every now then. Maybe what happened was designed by God so that our community will become a developed one,” she said.
Another resident of the community, Malam Sheriff Bashir, said as a community, the people of Tudun Biri had put the event of December 3, 2023 behind them despite the number of people that died. He however said the only thing the community wants from the government is for it to fulfill the promises it made to them and improve security in the area.
Bashir said: “As a community, we have resolved to leave this incident behind us. We are believers and we accepted the incident as the will of God, because if it was not meant to happen to us, nobody has the power to bring the calamity upon us.
“It was God that made it happen and we have accepted it as the will of God. So, we are not accusing anybody and we are not holding anyone responsible. We have the belief that it is still God that can help us to pass through this phase
“The only thing we are saying is that the government should fulfill the promises it made to us, because we live in a pitiful condition as you can see. We are villagers and poor farmers. We need help.
“We are also calling on the government to fortify this area and the entire country so that poor people can go about peacefully while seeking their daily bread.”
Even as they still mourn their lost loved ones and the injured are recuperating, the promises that followed the unfortunate bombing incident have raised the hope of Tudun Biri people for a taste of the dividends of democracy.
One of the community’s key actors, who is privy to the Kaduna State Government’s efforts towards ensuring the fulfillment of promises made to Tudun Biri, Malam Idris Dahiru, said already, the Kaduna State Government, led by Governor Uba Sani, had started fulfilling some of the promises made to them.
According to Dahiru, in the last one month, the state government has been responsible for the treatment, feeding and clothing of the injured victims while those already treated and discharged were being accommodated at the Women and Children Shelter where they are provided with psycho-social care.
“Also, as a demonstration of his commitment to the development of Tudun Biri, Governor Uba Sani has set up a committee chaired by the Deputy Governor, Dr. Hadiza Balarabe.
“This committee is responsible for the management of the donations so far made for our community and to also monitor the execution of the developmental projects promised Tudun Biri.
“The Governor and his team members like the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Director General Interfaith and others are making frantic efforts to wipe our tears away.
“We know they cannot bring back our loved ones that died, but they have really shown that they are with us. We are grateful for that and we trust that they will fulfill every bit of their promises and help to follow up on the promises made by others,” Dahiru said.
He however joined his kinsmen in appealing to the government to put in place adequate security in Tudun Biri and environs before the commencement of the major intervention projects, so that, bandits will not disrupt the work in progress.
Governor Uba Sani while inaugurating the Tudun Biri Project implementation committee last weekend, confirmed the commencement of the intervention programmes in Tudun Biri, saying: “We have commenced the construction of access roads to Tudun Biri and other affected communities in the area.”
The governor added: “The Federal Government, National Assembly, Nigeria Governors Forum, corporate organisations and well-meaning Nigerians have made donations and announced intervention programmes aimed at bringing succour to the distressed community, rebuilding the community, and giving the people renewed hope and sense of security.
“As a responsive, responsible and accountable government, we must take keen interest in how donations and intervention programmes for the Tudun Biri community are disbursed and executed.
“We want to ensure that the donations go to the actual beneficiaries. We want to monitor the implementation of the projects to ensure their speedy and effective implementation.
“This Committee has therefore been constituted for the purpose of accountability, inclusivity and transparency.
“The Committee will serve as the Implementation and Monitoring Mechanism for Tudun Biri Projects and Funds.”
Membership of the Committee was drawn from representatives of the victims of the incident (next of kins of the departed and injured) as well as community, religious and political leaders from Tudun Biri community and Igabi Local Government Area.
