LEADER of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, has called on the Federal Government to condemn the killings in Southern Kaduna, faulting government’s seeming indifference on the issue.
However, Senator Danjuma Laah (PDP, Kaduna South) yesterday, praised the Federal and Kaduna State governments for what he said were the massive deployment of soldiers and armed policemen to troubled areas of Southern Kaduna.
Also Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, Kaduna State chapter, pleaded with both Southern Kaduna natives and its members to sheathe their swords and embrace reconciliation, months after Southern Kaduna natives have accused the herdsmen of genocide.
Fasoranti
The leader of Afenifere, Pa Fasoranti, in a statement, said: “It grieves us that the Federal Government has been quiet on these killings, relying on the Governor of the state, who has openly confessed that he looked out for the killers to compensate them because they are of the same ethnic stock with him.
“A state of emergency ought to have been declared in Kaduna as the governor, by that claim, can no longer be trusted to perform his constitutional duty of protecting the lives and property of all citizens.
“We are further embarrassed by the statement credited to Mr. Femi Adesina, the President’s spokesman, that our Leader has been quiet on these killings because he cannot speak on every issue.
“How can the killings of citizens in hundreds be ‘every issue’? Has our President not sent messages to other countries, where tragedies of lesser proportion occurred?”
Senator Laah
The Senator representing the area, Senator Laah, yesterday, said: “As you can all recall, I have tried alongside with my colleagues at the National Assembly to seek intervention of both the state and the Federal governments to arrest the situation. Unfortunately, these actions were met with lukewarm reactions.
“I hope the presence of these large contingents of soldier, Police and Department of State Services, DSS, will lead to the arrest of culprits so that they can be brought to justice.
These kinds of horrendous crimes must not go unpunished.”
He then pleaded that a supplementary budget be made and passed into law to assist affected communities.
The Senator slammed the 24-Hour Curfew imposed over Jema’a, Kaura and Zangon Kataf LGAs of Southern Kaduna, saying the measure was punitive rather than for security measures.
Miyetti Allah
Meanwhile, MACBAN, Kaduna State chapter, yesterday, pleaded with both Southern Kaduna natives and its members to sheathe their swords and embrace reconciliation months after Southern Kaduna natives accused the herdsmen of genocide.
MACBAN, in corroborating Kaduna State government’s position that the invasions carried out by herdsmen were reprisal killings from the 2011 post-presidential killings of herdsmen and their cattle, however, preached that reprisals would never lead to a solution to the problem.
The Assistant National Secretary of Miyetti Allah, Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, addressing the press in Kaduna, said some foreign Fulani were killed in Southern Kaduna in 2011 alongside local Fulani.
He said when the reprisal attacks from the Fulani started then, late Governor Patrick Yakowa of Kaduna State intervened by reaching out to aggrieved Fulani, using some members of MACABAN, which ultimately led to resolving the crisis in 2012.
He noted that Yakowa’s predecessor did not continue with the policy.
He praised Governor El-Rufai for continuing with what Yakowa started, saying the ongoing killings were regrettable.
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