Blood on the Prayer Mat: Katsina’s Unguwan Mantau Massacre Exposes a Republic That Cannot Protect Its Own.

Written by George Omagbemi Sylvester | published by SaharaWeeklyNG.com

At dawn (an hour meant for quiet devotion) gunmen invaded the small community of Unguwan Mantau in Malumfashi Local Government Area, Katsina State and turned a mosque into a killing ground. Worshippers had gathered for morning prayers when the assailants opened fire and set homes ablaze in nearby villages. By midweek, officials confirmed that at least 50 people were dead and around 60 others abducted, a toll that is as staggering as it is shameful for a state that claims a monopoly on force.

Authorities and residents describe a grim sequence: 30 worshippers shot inside the mosque and 20 more burned to death as the attackers extended their carnage to surrounding settlements. Local legislator Aminu Ibrahim briefed the Katsina State House of Assembly on the horror, while state officials deployed security forces after the fact; too late to save the dead, too thin to deter the abductors.

Early accounts suggest the assault may have been retaliation after townspeople reportedly ambushed and killed several gunmen days earlier. That cycle (residents defending themselves in the absence of reliable protection, only to face brutal vengeance) has become a deadly pattern in northwestern Nigeria, where armed groups and “BANDITS” exploit rainy-season cover and thin state presence to RAID, BURN, KIDNAP and KILL.

Let us be clear: this is not an inevitable tragedy of geography. It is a FAILURE of GOVERNANCE, of SECURITY PLANNING, and of JUSTICE. Over the past years, the northwest and north-central regions have endured relentless attacks linked to FARMER-HERDER tensions over land and water, predation by organized criminal gangs and the broader erosion of state authority outside major urban centers. The line between “CONFLICT” and outright criminal insurgency is now razor-thin.

Political theory provides a precise yardstick for this disgrace. Over a century ago, sociologist Max Weber wrote that a state is “a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.” When citizens are gunned down in prayer while perpetrators roam and re-attack, that monopoly is shattered and with it, the state’s basic claim to legitimacy.

The late Kofi Annan fused security, rights and development into a single doctrine: “We will not enjoy development without security, we will not enjoy security without development, and we will not enjoy either without respect for human rights.” This massacre in Katsina is the brutal embodiment of that warning. Without security, farmers cannot farm; traders cannot trade; children cannot attend school and families cannot even pray in peace. Development, under such conditions, is a cruel mirage.

What Happened and Why It Matters?

THE ATTACK: Armed men stormed the Unguwan Mantau mosque during Fajr prayers and extended the assault to nearby homes. Dozens were killed; many more abducted.

POSSIBLE TRIGGER: Officials and residents say it may have been a reprisal for an earlier community ambush that killed several gunmen.

THE PATTERN: Such dawn and nighttime raids are frequent in the northwest, where armed groups exploit weak policing, limited military resources across vast rural terrain and dense foliage during the rainy season.

THE TREND: Initial reports counted 13–27 deaths; by Wednesday, the figure rose to about 50, with around 60 abducted, underscoring how quickly casualty numbers escalate as the dust settles.

This is not simply about numbers; it is about a citizen (state covenant in tatters). When communities are compelled to self-arm and mount ambushes (because formal protection is unreliable) retaliation is almost guaranteed and civilians are the softest targets. The state’s reactive deployments after massacres are emblematic of STRATEGY-BY-PRESS-RELEASE, not the PROACTIVE, INTELLIGENCE-DRIVEN SECURITY ARCHITECTURE demanded by these threats.

The Deeper Rot.
The criminal economies driving banditry (KIDNAP-FOR-RANSOM, PROTECTION RACKETS, CATTLE RUSTLING, ILLEGAL MINING CORRIDORS) thrive where the state is ABSENT, PREDATORY or CORRUPT. Meanwhile, climate stress and shrinking livelihoods intensify local disputes. But to reduce this to “AGE-OLD CLASHES” is to excuse the inexcusable. A sovereign republic cannot outsource the safety of its citizens to luck, weather or vigilante valor.

Economist Amartya Sen has argued that “development is freedom,” and freedom requires protective security; the guarantees that shield people from “unfreedoms” such as violence and fear. In Unguwan Mantau, that protective security failed catastrophically. The cardinal test of government (to keep people alive) was not met.

What Must Happen Now.
Relentless, intelligence-led pursuit of the perpetrators. Nigeria’s security agencies must treat this as a priority counter (organized-crime operation) not a one-off sweep. Establish a fusion cell covering Katsina, Kaduna, Zamfara corridors to map command structures, financiers, armories and kidnap logistics. Use signals intelligence, human sources and air-ground coordination to preempt, not merely respond. (The rainy season cover cited by officials must be factored into surveillance and patrol patterns not used as an alibi.)

Secure worship spaces and rural choke points. Pre-dawn prayers and market days are high-risk windows. Station mobile units and community-alert networks around mosques, schools and feeder roads, especially in Malumfashi LGA and adjacent hot spots. Visible deterrence is itself a lifesaver.

Ransom-proof the landscape. Every abduction that results in a quiet payout feeds the monster. Create a state-backed Victim Support & Rapid Recovery Fund tied to non-payment protocols, combined with swift asset seizures from suspected collaborators and money handlers. Follow the money. (Sahara and others report dozens abducted here; if ransoms flow, future attacks are financed before our eyes.)

Professionalize community defense, don’t romanticize it. Where auxiliary community guards exist, fold them into a regulated, trained and accountable rural constabulary under state oversight, with clear rules of engagement to minimize reprisals and human rights abuses that fuel revenge cycles. The alternative (ad hoc vigilantism) invites more massacres.

Justice that is seen and felt. Special fast-track courts for terror, mass murder and banditry, with witness protection, are essential. Publicize arrests, prosecutions and convictions. Impunity is the oxygen of repeat offenses.

Address the economic logic of violence. Expand livelihood programs along known attack corridors, integrate pastoral routes and grazing policy into land-use planning and disrupt illegal mining and gun-running networks that bankroll banditry. Security without economic chokeholds is whack-a-mole policy.

National coordination and honest metrics. Standardize incident reporting and response time audits across the northwest. Publish monthly dashboards, attacks prevented, abductees rescued, networks dismantled. What gets measured gets managed. What is hidden festers.

A Country at a Crossroads.
The killings in Unguwan Mantau join a long, painful ledger of atrocities that stain our conscience and corrode our democracy. This is not the northeast’s Boko Haram front (though its ghosts haunt us still) it is the northwest’s criminal insurgency that feasts on governance voids. The Associated Press, Reuters, Al Jazeera and Anadolu Agency document the evolution of the death toll and the abductions; the facts are uncontested, the devastation undeniable.

And yet, facts alone do not move nations; resolve does. Weber’s test (the monopoly of legitimate force) is not a seminar abstraction; it is the thin line between a republic and a ravaged territory. If Nigeria cannot guarantee that its citizens will not be butchered at prayer, then every promise of reform rings hollow.

Kofi Annan’s injunction should be plastered on the wall of every security council chamber and governor’s office: there is no development without security and no security without human rights. Secure the people; uphold the law; choke the money flows; measure honestly; punish swiftly. Anything less is complicity by incompetence.

Unguwan Mantau is not a headline. It is a warning. If we do not break the cycle (today, not tomorrow) more families will bury their dead after morning prayers and bandits will tighten their grip on the rural heartland. The state must reclaim its authority or concede that others wield it.

May the victims REST IN PEACE. May the ABDUCTED RETURN ALIVE. And may those who failed to protect them feel the full weight of accountability that a republic demands.

Ajadi Rejects Pay Rise For President, Others, Says Proposal Insensitive To Nigerians Suffer

A South West Chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party, (NNPP) has said that he rejects the reported plan by the Federal Government to raise the salaries of political office holders, including the President, Vice-President, Ministers and others, saying such move is insensitive to the current plights of Nigerians due to the present economic challenges.

Ajadi said many Nigerians are groaning under unprecedented hardship due to the harsh economy, saying what is expected of the political office holders is to make sacrifices.

It could be recalled that the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, (RMAFC) has hinted at plans to review the salaries of political office holders in Nigeria, describing current earnings as inadequate, unrealistic, and outdated in the face of rising responsibilities and economic challenges.

At a press briefing in Abuja on Monday, RMAFC Chairman, Mohammed Shehu, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu presently earns N1.5m monthly, while ministers receive less than N1m, figures that have remained unchanged since 2008.

According to Shehu, “You are paying the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria N1.5m a month, with a population of over 200 million people. Everybody believes that it is a joke.

“You cannot pay a minister less than N1m per month since 2008 and expect him to put in his best without necessarily being involved in some other things. You pay either a CBN governor or the DG ten times more than you pay the President. That is just not right. Or you pay him [the head of an agency] twenty times higher than the Attorney-General of the Federation. That is absolutely not right”.

However, Ajadi in a statement made available to journalists on Wednesday, said at a time when reforms demand sacrifice, this proposal smacks of greed, tone-deafness and moral bankruptcy.

Ajadi said a progressive government in moments of economic crisis like Nigeria is currently going through will reduce the cost of governance rather than inflate it.

According to him, it is insensitive to increase political office holders’ salaries while workers have been struggling for a living wage without appropriate response from the governments.

“The proposed increase in salaries of the President, Vice and other political office holders at this time of economic hardship will amount to insensitivity to the plights of ordinary Nigerians

“The current Workers’ minimum wages is not enough to provide the means of livelihood for any worker. The inflation is biting harder on Nigerians. Contrary to the poor conditions of Nigerians, political office holders are flashing their riches, and displaying their wealth openly with utter disregard to the conditions of ordinary citizens. To now increase the salaries of these political office holders will not augur well for our country.

“In countries where the economy is bad, what obtained is for the political office holders to reduce their earnings as a sacrifice. It is with this that they will have the moral right to preach to ordinary citizens to make.sacrifice.

“In New Zealand, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her cabinet reduced their pay by 20% during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“During the 2008 financial crisis, Ireland slashed ministerial and parliamentary salaries by as much as 30%.

“In the midst of Greece’s sovereign debt crisis, ministers and the Members of Parliament took salaries cuts in solidarity with citizens.

“True leaders tight their belts first before asking citizens to bear the burden of reform. For Nigeria’s political class to even consider “jumbo salaries” at a time of rising inflation, subsidy removal, unemployment and worsening poverty is unconscionable.

“RMAFC must immediately drop this self-serving scheme.What the nation requires today is fiscal discipline, leadership by sacrifice, not political overlords fattening themselves while citizens starve”.

Fubara Behind Campaign of Calumny Against Tinubu Over Rivers Emergency Rule – CJD

The Coalition for Justice and Democracy (CJD) has accused the suspended Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, of orchestrating a campaign of calumny against President Bola Tinubu as revenge for the declaration of emergency rule in the state.

In a strongly worded statement on Wednesday and signed by its president, Comrade Raymond Aighona, the coalition alleged that Fubara was also behind the circulation of a document on social media which falsely accused the Sole Administrator of Rivers, Ibok-Eket Ibas, of mismanaging half a trillion naira and inflating contracts under the guise of funding President Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid.

The group dismissed the allegations as “baseless blackmail”, insisting that the sole administrator had acted strictly within the limits of the emergency powers granted him and under the constant oversight of committees set up by both chambers of the National Assembly to monitor Rivers during the emergency rule.

“Siminalayi Fubara has chosen the path of bitterness and deceit. He has not forgiven President Tinubu for saving Rivers State from total political anarchy through the declaration of emergency rule. Now, in an act of reckless vengeance, he is sponsoring falsehoods, pushing forged documents, and trying to smear the reputation of the President and the sole administrator. These antics will not succeed,” Aighona declared.

The CJD said it had carried out its own checks and found no evidence to support the claims of financial recklessness being circulated online against Ibas.

“Every action of the Sole Administrator is monitored by oversight committees from both the Senate and the House of Representatives. His expenditures are scrutinised and subjected to due process. For anyone to claim that he single-handedly pulled out half a trillion naira from the coffers of Rivers State is not only laughable but deliberately mischievous,” the group added.

According to the CJD, the social media document, which alleged that inflated contracts were being used to bankroll the President’s 2027 campaign, bore “all the fingerprints of Fubara’s political desperation”.

“This is nothing but a forged narrative manufactured by those who lost relevance under the emergency rule. Fubara is the unseen hand behind these malicious reports. He hopes to poison the minds of Rivers people against President Tinubu and to discredit Ibas, whose steady leadership has restored calm and order to the state,” Aighona said.

The group further warned that such “propaganda politics” could inflame tensions and destabilise Rivers if not exposed for what it truly is.

“What Fubara is doing is reckless and dangerous. Rather than take responsibility for the failures of his short-lived administration, he is weaponising lies, sowing distrust, and dragging the President’s name into his personal vendetta. This is not only unfair to President Tinubu but also a betrayal of Rivers people who are finally enjoying stability after months of turmoil,” the statement continued.

The CJD praised Ibas for what it described as “disciplined and transparent stewardship” since his appointment as Sole Administrator.

“Ibas has not gone beyond his authority. He has been meticulous in carrying out his duties and has kept faith with the mandate to stabilise Rivers State. He deserves commendation, not blackmail. Anyone suggesting otherwise is only doing the bidding of embittered politicians like Fubara,” Aighona said.

The group called on security agencies to investigate the origin of the circulating document and to expose those behind the “malicious forgery”.

It also urged the Nigerian public to treat such reports with contempt, stressing that the claims were designed to smear the President and destabilise Rivers.

“There is no half-trillion naira missing from Rivers’ coffers. There are no inflated contracts funding the President’s re-election. These are lies from the pit of desperation. The real story is that Fubara, who has been constitutionally sidelined under emergency rule, is fighting back with propaganda. He must be called out,” the CJD stated.

The coalition reaffirmed its support for the emergency measures in Rivers, insisting that the intervention had prevented total collapse and restored a measure of peace and governance to the state.

“President Tinubu acted to save Rivers, not to exploit it. Ibas has executed that mandate with dignity. The blackmail campaign being funded by Fubara cannot erase these truths. Nigerians should see through his desperation and reject his propaganda,” Aighona advised.