A report has emerged of the how Dr Waziri Isa Gwantu, a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, Kaduna state, lost four of his children in one day.
The incident which occurred on December 13, 2015, during the spat between military men and the Shi’ites sect in Zaria remains a dark day for the university lecturer as his three boys and a girl, all undergraduates, were mudered in cold blood.
During an interview with Vanguard, Dr Waziri looked utterly devastated by the loss of four children in one swoop and was close to tears but found solace in his religion which preaches that nothing can happen to any man except it is sanctioned by God.
“It was the first day of the month which our prophet, Mohammed was born so we usually organize Maulud Programme on the first day of the month. On that very day, I took my children in my car to the venue Of the Programme. But on getting to a certain point, I heard gun shots and the roads were blocked.
“I asked and was told that there was a misunderstanding between the military and the Shiites. I wasn’t surprised hearing this because six months before then, our sheikh had informed us that he got security reports that the military was trying to perfect a scenario where they would tell the world that the military was attacked by the Shiites and then use that as an excuse to descend on every member of the movement.
“Bearing that in mind, I decided to take the children to the Sheikh’s house thinking that would be a safe place to stay until the crisis subsided after which we would then go back for the Programme. I dropped them and went back to the house at about 5pm leaving an instruction that when the Sheikh is ready for the Programme, they should call me,” the lecturer narrated.

On receiving the call, Waziri’s expectation was dashed as he did not envisage what he heard from the other end of the phone.
He said: “One hour later, he called me to say he had been shot in the leg. I could hear gun shots in the back ground. At about 1 am, l got another call but this time from my daughter to inform me that she was shot on her belly. She was crying and I couldn’t go to help them because the roads leading to the residence was blocked.
“On the following day, my eldest son called to tell me that there were corpses everywhere and he was among the few surviving souls in the place. I encouraged him to keep praying and as we were talking, he informed me that they were approaching him with guns and that he isn’t sure his father will get to speak with him again . Shortly after, the line went off. He was also killed.
“The one that first called me on Saturday night told me that he was dying because of the loss of so much blood. I was devastated because I could not go to help them. I called Reverend Father Matthew Kukah to appeal to government to stop the killing in Zaria. I also called Reverend Hayap in Kaduna and reported to him what was going on.”
On whether the sect members were the first to provoke the military to action, the lecturer wondered why people who accused the Shiites of keeping weapons were not able to produce one single victim among the security forces that were said to have been attacked.

“We don’t believe in weapons. We don’t believe in killing. We are not ISIS or Boko Haram who call themselves Sunnis.
“What is even more painful is that after killing these children, they denied us access to their corpses so that we could pray for them and bury them appropriately. They were buried in mas$ graves. What offense have we committed to deserve this kind of oppression? Even Boko Haram that are known to be the worst killers in the world are not treated this way.
“Jesus Christ was killed according to the biblical narration. How did his mother take it? She left things to God. Prophets of God were killed in the past. All the children of Prophet Mohammed were killed. They referred everything to divine justice. We have overcome it. We have left everything to God,” he stated sorrowfully.
Waziri also left a message for the federal government: “I have fourteen children so the government still has ten more to kill. If they think that killing will kill an ideology, they are in for surprise”