The Kano State Police Command has launched a rigorous investigation following the horrific killing of two women, identified as senior and junior wives in the same household, who were burnt alive by unknown assailants in Tudun Yola, Gwale Local Government Area. The tragic event, which occurred on Thursday afternoon, has sent shockwaves through the quiet community and left residents in a state of fear and disbelief.
Police spokesperson, CSP Abdullahi Haruna Kiyawa, confirmed the incident to journalists, saying, “The Kano State Police Command has opened an intense investigation after two women — who are senior and junior wives — were gruesomely killed.” CSP Kiyawa, however, declined to provide further details noting, “so as not to jeopardise the ongoing investigation.”
According to preliminary findings, the attackers entered the matrimonial home at a time when the husband was away and the neighborhood unusually quiet. The intruders reportedly set the women ablaze inside their respective rooms. Investigators recovered two mobile phones believed to belong to the suspected killers at the scene and discovered signs that the senior wife may have been injured before being set on fire.
A family friend recounted the events, stating that the assailants had slipped into the house long before dusk without attracting any attention. Anas Sha’aibu, one of the children of the senior wife, described the ordeal: “I was at home at night when my father called, asking me to rush to the family house because there was a fire. But when we arrived, what we found was something else entirely. The junior wife was already burning. My mom locked herself inside the bathroom.”
He continued, “We struggled to break the door. When we finally forced it open, we found her dead too. We realised her room had also been set on fire — the flames were pushed through the bathroom ventilation.”
Anas further explained that CCTV footage from a neighboring house captured the suspected attackers arriving around 12:30pm and remaining inside for hours without notice. “No one knew they were inside until after the Maghrib prayer,” he said. When one of the children returned home after sunset, he discovered the door locked from within and called repeatedly but received no answer from his parents’ phones. “That was when he contacted our father, who immediately instructed me to rush home — only to meet this disaster,” Anas recounted.
The family initially suspected an accidental fire until a closer inspection of the house raised suspicions. “The main sitting room was untouched,” Anas noted. “We found a jerrycan of petrol. We also saw that the generator had been tampered with and fuel poured around.” He described the devastation: “One wife was burnt on a chair, while petrol was splashed across the junior wife’s entire room, including her bed. The whole mattress was burnt. Everything in her room was deliberately set on fire.”
Police confirmed that the investigation is ongoing and urged residents to remain vigilant as the search for the killers intensifies. The incident has left the Tudun Yola community gripped by fear, mourning the loss of two of their own in an attack that underscores the growing concerns over safety in residential neighborhoods.
