Still on the killings in Southern Kaduna

SPEAKING during an interview last Sunday, the Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, said he would not ‘appease’ certain  leaders of the troubled Southern Kaduna area of the state.  According to him, the said leaders were intent on blackmailing him for pecuniary gain. He said: “I have no time for nonsense. I will not appease criminals. I will not appease idle people who have nothing to do but to raise a spectre of genocide. They do that to get money into their bank accounts and get donations from abroad. Anyone that is moderate, anyone that is promoting peaceful co-existence between various ethnic groups, is considered a sellout. And with a governor like me who does not appease them, because they are used to being appeased, they cause troubles. They organise these killings and then their leaders are invited by the governor; they wine and dine and they are given brown envelopes. That’s what they have been doing for 20 years.”

The governor’s declaration came after the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) described the killings in the area as an act of genocide aimed at wiping out the indigenous people with the aim of taking over their ancestral lands. Speaking during a Black Sunday organised by the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Kaduna, the SOKAPU national president, Mr. Jonathan Asake, refuted claims by Major General Chukwuemeka Okonkwo, the commander of Operation Safe Haven, a military outfit deployed to quell the crisis in the state, that the killings were communal killings by Atyap youths and Fulani herders. “The truth must be told that there is a grand ploy to massacre the people of Southern Kaduna and dispossess them of their ancestral lands. When you consider that over 75 per cent of the victims of the attacks are children and women, then you will understand that since children and women are not farmers, we cannot accept the narrative of a clash between the two groups,”he said. The SOKAPU leader recalled the visit, on August 8, of representatives of the Southern and Middle Belt Forum (SMBLF) to Kala IDP camp in Kajuru local government area of the state, where over 3,000 persons were taking refuge after being sacked by suspected Fulani invaders from their towns and villages.

In a statement issued on Monday after meeting with the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Revd. Supo Ayokunle, and other CAN leaders in Kaduna, Governor El-Rufai indicated that his administration was installing closed-circuit television as part of efforts to strengthen security forces and restore calm in the crisis-torn communities. He said: “While we mourn the dead, our immediate focus remains to stop the cycle of attacks and reprisals. We remain committed to ending the legacy of violence that has blighted the state for 40 years, needlessly taken many lives and curtailed the life chances of others. We will continue to support the security agencies to restore calm in the affected communities.”

It is commendable that the governor appreciates the enormity of security challenges in Southern Kaduna, and is deploying technology to curb the menace. However, his relationship with the people of the area remains strained. This needs to change. In previous editorials, we pointed out that the governor, realising the no-love-lost relationship between him and the people of Southern Kaduna, should have taken steps to iron out his differences with them, winning their trust and taking the battle to the bloodthirsty criminals ravaging the area. As we noted, he ought to be seen as bending over backwards to address the needs of a critical population. There is no reason to believe that the situation has changed, and it is highly unfortunate.

Besides, if, going by his own admission, Governor el-Rufai knows those sponsoring killings in the area in with a view to getting “brown envelopes” from the state, it is bewildering that his administration has not charged such people to court. If the identified merchants of death and destruction have neither been arrested nor prosecuted, the fault is clearly that of the governor. On the other hand, however, leaders of thought in the area ought to interface with the governor more productively and find ways of working with him to end the carnage in the area. There is no reason to adopt a hard-line position that threatens to further postpone quick resolution of the crisis in Southern Kaduna.

The Federal Government and the Kaduna State government need to stop the carnage in Southern Kaduna, and very fast. In this regard, it is noteworthy that Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) arrested eight suspects in connection with the recent killings, last week. Presenting the suspects to journalists in Kafanchan, Col. David Nwakonobi, the Commander, Sector 7 of the operation, Okonkwo, said six of the suspects were arrested on August 5 in Lere Local Government Area of Kaduna State. According to him, the other two were arrested at Chawai, a village on the fringes of Kauru and Zango Kataf local government areas. The commander said the suspects had been profiled and would be handed over to the police for further investigation and prosecution. This is a positive development, but the security agencies need to do more to restore calm in the area.

 

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