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Ilya Bitrus Jack, a retired
soldier, reputed marksman and head of the Ilya family, had been on the
trail of some alleged Fulani marauders. In Kai, Kura Falls, Barkin Ladi
local government area of Plateau State where Mr. Jack lived, he
discovered that his manhunt was a dangerous game, that the people he
was hunting were also hunting him. So he deployed twists, he used
decoys, and he went through convoluted routes to get to his home. In
the end, none of these saved him.

That Sunday evening, Mr. Jack was
at a colonial recreation centre known as Nesco Welfare Club, Kura
falls, watching football. Unknown to him, an alleged accomplice in the
plot against him, Yau Husseini, was also in the premises monitoring
him, and reporting his movement via mobile telephone to other
conspirators who were already lurking around Mr. Jack’s home in
anticipation of his return.

Mr. Jack took the usual
precaution when he left for his house at about 8:30pm. Sensing that he
was being trailed, he took some roundabout route. On getting to Kai
village where he resided, he entered the house of a pastor friend of
his, where he reportedly took some drugs as medication for an
undisclosed ailment. Mr. Husseini, meanwhile, reportedly used this
period to tell his accomplices to get ready; they masked themselves,
mobilised and hid in the dark near the residence of Mr. Jack.
Immediately Mr. Jack entered his parlour, five masked men, among them
the unrelenting Mr. Husseini, rushed him with knives and sticks, while
another group of 10 men provided cover and back up for the attack.

A major skirmish ensued as Mr.
Jack attempted to rebuff them while his wife screamed at the murderers
to let him be. The attackers hacked down Mr. Jack, and proceed to
administer the same fate on his wife and daughter, Keziah Ilya, who had
rushed to the scene. But Mr. Husseini, a Fulani commercial motorcyclist
in Kura Falls, told the only surviving daughter of the Jacks, Bridget,
in Challa (the language of a minority tribe in Bokkos local government
area of Plateau State) to run out of the house to safety.

Gruesome murder

She did. She ended up climbing a
tree around the compound from where she watched the details of the orgy
being orchestrated. Miss Bridget who is a JSS 3 student at a day
secondary school in Kakuruk, said apart from Mr. Husseini and another
Fulani civilian, three of the five men who attacked and murdered her
father, mother and sibling, were soldiers who had earlier served on the
military task force in the area.

Bridget narrated that Mr. Jack
put up manly resistance as they stabbed him from different angles,
before the assailants eventually shot him dead; and proceeded to kill
her mother and sister in the same brutal manner.

A younger brother of Mr. Jack who
also died in the attack, Philip Ilya, was actually killed in the
attempt to defend and avenge the spirit of his brother. Reports say Mr.
Ilya, having been attracted by the disquiet generated by the brawl, and
convinced that they had killed his brother’s family, went on a counter
assault. But his locally made gun with one bullet merely sparked off
more tragedy rather than inflicting any injury on the assailants. They
quelled his defensive outburst with superior fire power. Mr. Ilya was
eventually killed and after this the assailants left. In the ecstasy of
the moment, convinced that they were home free, they removed their
masks but in that moment, a well-known person in the village Yohanna
Mashash who was passing by, saw their faces. They begged him not to
reveal that he met them at that time so near the scene of crime.

An unending nightmare

Mr. Mashash agreed and assured
them that his mouth was sealed and they all departed. Again, it was
reportedly Mr. Husseini with his diabolical instincts who told the
group that Mr Mashash could not be trusted to keep their secret. They
quickly called the unsuspecting Mr. Mashash back, and trusting in the
agreement he had with the group, returned only to be shot dead.

The murderers then reportedly
returned to the house of one Sukku Ruah after accomplishing their
mission, where they had met to hatch the orgy of savagery and
bloodletting.

In the aftermath of the attack,
the security agencies have swung into action. As at press time, reports
said Sukku Ruah and Husseini Yau are already with the state CID, while
Bridget Ilya, who saw it all happen, has been a coveted witness that
the police hope to use to prove their case. At Kura Falls, the mood of
the people is solemn and every body looks so vulnerable. There is
tension too as the incident shows that the enemies are within.

There are accounts that say the
late Mr Jack himself was a victim of a system he has been sustaining
and patronising, because he had allegedly been putting his military
experience at the service of gangs of killers, and even repairing their
weapons. Another report says the attacks were sponsored by others as Mr
Husseini was caught with N21,000 on him at the time of his arrest.

But in the larger social circle that is Nigeria, the sobering question is “when will this madness end?”.