12 members of one family were burnt to death after suspected bandits set their home ablaze in Gidan Taba village, Maradun Local Government Area of Zamfara State, amid alleged delays in security response.
The attack occurred on Saturday night, November 7, 2026, when the assailants reportedly entered the community, discovered the family members inside a room and set it on fire.The victims belonged to the family of Mallam Muhammadu Sani, a local vigilante in the community.
The Village Head, Salahudeen Bello, said the police and military were alerted but failed to respond in time, blaming the tragedy partly on poor coordination between local vigilantes and the government-backed Community Protection Guards (CPG).
“If Vigilante and CPG had worked together that night, those 12 people would not have died,” Bello said. He explained that local vigilantes understood the terrain and were ready to respond but lacked the sophisticated weapons needed to confront the attackers without support from the CPG and conventional security forces.
The Chairman of Maradun Local Government Area, Sanusi Ahmed Dosara, also alleged that his distress calls to security personnel went unanswered during the attack.
Dosara said he called the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), who later returned his call and explained that he had initially been asleep. He also contacted the sector commander at Gidan Kono, who reportedly promised to inform his replacement about the incident.
According to the chairman, soldiers later explained that they had heard gunshots from three different directions and could not determine where to deploy.The incident has renewed concerns about the rivalry between the CPG, popularly known as Askarawa, and Yan Sakai, locally organised vigilantes who operate in parts of Zamfara.
While the CPG was established by the state government in 2024, with trained personnel receiving monthly allowances, Yan Sakai operates informally and depends largely on community contributions.
Residents have repeatedly complained that the two groups fail to share intelligence and coordinate their responses during bandit attacks.
A resident of Tsafe Local Government Area, Halima Jalo, said villagers often depend on Yan Sakai because its members live within their communities.”When we call CPG in our village they always give excuses, is either there’s no fuel or the vehicle breaks down, so we just have to rely on the local we know because they are there for us,” she said.
A farmer in Moriki, Zurmi, who requested anonymity, also complained about the financial burden of supporting both groups.”We pay twice but we are protected once. At night, only the Yan vigilantes show up,” the farmer said.
The CPG has accused Yan Sakai of unprofessional conduct and fuelling ethnic reprisals, while the latter has criticised the government-backed outfit for allegedly avoiding operations in forest areas.
Following the tragedy, Dosara called for the CPG, Yan Sakai, police and military to operate under one command structure with a common communication system. He said better coordination among the security groups was necessary to prevent similar attacks.
For the people of Gidan Taba, however, the failure to protect the community has left 12 members of one family dead, raising painful questions about the security arrangements meant to keep them safe.
Emiabata Deborah Oluwabusiolami
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