Stop Kaduna killings now, avert national calamity, NSCIA warns FG

The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), under the leadership of its President-General and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, has told the Federal Government that the frequent crises in Kaduna State are capable of snowballing into a national calamity if not urgently addressed.

The organisation also stated that the persistence of the incidents is capable of eroding people’s confidence in government.

The NSCIA, in a statement signed by its Deputy Secretary-General, Professor Salisu Shehu, said the council “is very much disturbed by the current crisis in Kaduna, the capital city of Kaduna State. This is because such crisis, becoming too frequent, is capable of snowballing into a national calamity.”

The statement reads in part: “We call on the Kaduna State government as well as the Federal Government to handle the volatile issue with care to prevent it from getting aggravated.  If Nigerians need peaceful coexistence as citizens, this is the time. We will not be tired of telling government to bring all those that have hands in these crises to book because, as it were, failure to do just this has been the most significant factor in making these unfortunate incidents to be recurrent decimals in the country.

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“While we may not be in a position to tell government of the right measures to take in averting these kinds of tragic incidents, we have the right to express our opinion to the effect that the persistence of these incidents is continuously eroding people’s confidence in government.

“Similarly, it smacks of lack of cooperation, synergy and coordination among the various security agencies and organisations, needless to talk about near complete absence of intelligence gathering. These are challenges that the Federal Government will have to address urgently not only to ensure the entrenchment of enduring peace but also to sustain people’s confidence and goodwill.”