A former presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has condemned the recent killings in the Woro community of Kwara State, describing the incident as a grim illustration of Nigeria’s worsening rural insecurity and the failure of state protection.
Olawepo-Hashim, in a statement released on Sunday and made available to PUNCH Online, stated that the attack, which reportedly claimed many lives, exposed deep flaws in the country’s security architecture, particularly the authorities’ inability to respond swiftly to distress calls from remote communities.
The former presidential candidate noted that condolences alone were no longer sufficient in the face of such large-scale violence.
“This killing is unprecedented in its scale and unmatched in its barbarity. I offer my condolences to the Woro community, but condolences are not enough this time,” Hashim stated.
According to Hashim, the massacre demonstrated how vulnerable rural populations had become, warning that armed groups now appeared capable of launching prolonged attacks without resistance.
“The killings in Woro have shown how easy it is for any group of deranged men to take hundreds of lives without resistance,” he said.
Olawepo-Hashim questioned the absence of aerial intervention during the attack, arguing that claims about the community’s remoteness were untenable given Nigeria’s air power capabilities.
He noted that the Nigerian Air Force maintains an operational presence along the Wawa–New Bussa axis, less than a 15-minute flight from Woro.
“I hear the unacceptable explanation that it takes hours to access the remote village. So what happened with the Air Force?” he asked.
Drawing comparisons with past military operations, Hashim said Nigeria had previously demonstrated the capacity for rapid response both within and outside its borders.
“The world needs to know why the Air Force, which could fly to the Benin Republic to save the Beninois President from mutiny, could not save the Woro people within the same geographical axis,” he said.
He also recalled Nigeria’s military interventions in Sierra Leone and Liberia, questioning why similar decisiveness was lacking at home.
“The Nigerian Army stopped killings in Sierra Leone and Liberia before. Why then can it not stop the slaughter of Nigerians in their own communities?”, Hashim queried.
The PDP chieftain added that reports indicated that attackers had issued a threat letter before the incident and that security agencies were alerted, raising concerns over the alleged withdrawal of deployed troops.
“Nigerians deserve to know who ordered that withdrawal and why,” he noted.
Olawepo-Hashim described it as troubling that security forces reportedly arrived only after the attackers had fled, with no arrests made days after the massacre.
He warned that repeated failures to protect rural communities could push residents toward self-help, vigilantism, and ethnic profiling.
“When communities feel abandoned, they will begin to seek survival outside the state. That is how societies slide into deeper instability,” he said.
Olawepo-Hashim called on the Federal Government, the Nigerian Air Force, and other security agencies to release a detailed operational account of the incident, including timelines of distress calls and reasons for the absence of aerial deployment.
He urged reforms to strengthen rural security through rapid-response systems, aerial surveillance, helicopter deployment, and forward operating bases in vulnerable areas.
The Woro killings, he warned, should be seen as part of expanding insecurity across the North Central region, stressing that Nigeria must not normalise mass killings.
PUNCH Online reports that on Wednesday, Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, revealed that at least 75 residents were killed in a brutal attack on two villages for resisting extremists who sought to impose a “strange doctrine” on the area.
The governor, speaking during a visit to Kaiama Local Government Area, accompanied by security chiefs and cabinet members, described the massacre as a cowardly expression of frustration by terrorist cells.
The attacks targeted the villages of Woro and Nuku in Kaiama LGA on Tuesday evening, where gunmen allegedly rounded up residents, bound their hands, and opened fire indiscriminately.
Confirming the incident, the police spokesperson in the state, Adetoun Ejire-Adeyemi, said the attack on the communities began at about 6 p.m. on Tuesday.
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