The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has decried the lacklustre attitude of the federal and Kaduna State governments to the persistent herdsmen killings in the Christian-dominated Southern Kaduna saying the people might resort to self-help should the bloodbath continue.
The president of CAN, Rev. Samson Ayokunle, made the declaration in a statement by his special assistant, media and communications, Mr. Adebayo Oladeji alleged that herdsmen were responsible for the killings in the area.
He said despite assurances from both the federal and Kaduna State governments to end the crisis, the spate attacks was an indication that the perpetrators of the killings were yet repent of acts of criminality against communities in Southern Kaduna.
“There is no doubt that the victims of these incessant assaults are indigenes of Kaduna State who are mostly Christians. Why is it the predominant Christian Southern Kaduna all the time? Don’t we have Northern Kaduna?
“While the senseless murder is not desirable in any part of the state or Nigeria, the continuous assault of the Southern Kaduna people has become highly suspicious and alarming. Only a fool or somebody who is a party to this evil would not know that there is something fishing.
“We have no other people to look up to for security than those of you in government. That was one of the reasons we put you there for all of us.
“People should not be allowed to resort to self- help, but if this situation is not addressed, self- help might be the alternative because nobody would keep on watching for these nuisances to continue to be on the prowl and snuff life out of him or her.
“The leadership of CAN expressed shock when the presidency described the current bloodshed in Southern Kaduna as politically motivated, coupled with banditry deployed along ethnic and religious lines.
“Where is the statistical evidence for that? Who are the politicians sponsoring this inhuman and callous act? Why have the federal authorities failed to apprehend or name them? Do they have the right to be doing this scot-free if it is true?”
He said whenever security personnel were deployed to a place, the herdsmen go to other villages to attack and kill people in their sleep or when they are about to sleep or when they are waking up.
He wondered how gunmen and terrorists should outmanoeuvre government-trained personnel in terms of tactics.
“Should the gunmen and terrorists be more powerful than a legitimate government? Why couldn’t the Kaduna State government with federal authorities go into the bush where these herdsmen are and apprehend them? Why couldn’t they mop up the ammunition with which they are doing havoc?
“We have discovered that whenever security personnel get deployed to a place, the herdsmen go to other villages to attack and kill people in their sleep or when they are about to sleep or when they are waking up. Should the criminals be more professional in tactics than the government trained security personnel?”
“It is regrettable that despite assurances from Governor Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai to bring perpetrators of the Southern Kaduna crimes to justice, the state and security agencies involved in the maintenance of law and order are yet to fulfill their pledge.
“If our leaders are not able to nip evil in the bud, then, why are they there? Should they be there for jamboree? Why do we call them ‘His Excellency’ when they cannot guarantee our security?”
However, the military countered CAN saying the attacks were not ethnic cleansing.
The Commander of Operation Safe Haven, Maj. Gen. Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, described the mayhem as the activities of criminal elements on both sides of the aggrieved communities.
Briefing journalists after a high-level security meeting at Government House, Kaduna, yesterday, Okonkwo said: “What we have were attacks on some communities and reprisal attacks.”
Similarly, the governor of Kaduna State blamed the killings on what he described as clashes between youths of two communities over farmland in Zangon-Kataf which later spread to other parts of Southern Kaduna.
He said his administration had done everything within its constitutional powers to bring peace in southern Kaduna and all parts of the state for over five years.
El-Rufai who addressed a security meeting said: “We answered the decade-old demand for a permanent military base by working with the federal government to deploy a Forward Operating Base (FOB) of the Nigerian Army in Kafanchan.
‘’We have nudged stakeholders in Kauru and Zangon-Kataf local government areas on this path and will continue to do so. We have also resolved to address lingering issues from the 1992 crisis in Zangon-Kataf by producing a White Paper on the recommendations made by the Judicial Commission of Inquiry and the Reconciliation Committee,”
“Our government purchased an estate to provide accommodation for a permanent mobile police squadron in the area. Also, it deployed in the area troops from Operation Safe Haven and Nigerian Army Special Forces, complemented by two mobile police squadrons,” he added.
Despite all these measures, “the best guarantee of peace is the willingness of communities to live in peace and harmony, and a resolve to settle differences through exclusively lawful means.”
Meanwhile, a video of gun-toting bandits, who claimed to be operating from Birnin Gwari forest in Kaduna State, has surfaced online.
In the less than three-minute long video twitted by a twitter user, Joel Amadi with twitter handle @ joeelkennis with hashtags: #peaceinsouthernkaduna, #stopthekillingsinsouthernkaduna, on Monday, June 27, the all-male gang of bandits, some of whom were less than 10 years old, were seen displaying assorted weapons, including AK47 assault rifles and rocket propelled grenades, while smoking and chatting loudly in a forest like area with a number of cows in the background.
A young man probably in his late 20s or early 30s, probably the leader of the gang, could be heard boasting about their capabilities against security personnel deployed in the area.
The gang leader, who spoke in Hausa while pointing to some of the boys holding assault rifles, said, “You see, they are afraid of these small boys. They drove them here because they are angry.
“We are honest. We don’t cheat people. See this one (pointing to a rocket-propelled grenade) with a long nose, praise be to Allah.
“We are not bandits. Anyone who calls us bandits, Allah will punish. We are followers of Allah and his messenger. In this life, we use guns to work for Allah. We don’t know what will happen in the afterlife.
“The government is using lies; we depend on Allah. We are not infidels; we are believers and Allah protects us.”
Meanwhile, Christian elders under the aegis of Northern States Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF) have called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sack service chiefs.
This was contained in a statement titled, ‘Northern States Christian Elders Forum on the mass killings and attacks on Southern Kaduna’, signed by NOSCEF’s chairman, Mr. Ejoga Inalegwu in Kaduna on Tuesday.
Also, the Southern Kaduna Elders Consultative Forum asked the President to urgently intervene to halt suspected herdsmen’s killings of their kinsmen in the southern part of the state.
