- As mourners receive victims’ coffins at Mallagun
BY SEGUN ADEBAYO – Wailing and unending tears took the centre stage as thousands of angry villagers set their eyes on 38 coffins bearing the corpses of people killed by armed herdsmen at Madamai and Abum villages of Kaura Local Government Area in the Southern part of Kaduna state.
The victims were murdered on September 27, 2021, and when the coffins arrived at the village square of Mallagun, about six kilometres from Ma’damai by the Kagoro-Samaru Kataf Expressway for a funeral mass, the scenario was that of fiery speeches and anger by the mourning party.
However, reports said there were no official representation from Kaduna State government, even as serving government officials from Southern Kaduna area were conspicuously absent from the solemn ceremony.
After emotions and frayed nerves had calmed down, the funeral mass eventually commenced at about 2 pm and in his message at the event, Senator Danjuma Laah said going forward, the people of Southern Kaduna must decide whether they want to go into extinction or not.
Laah, who is the Senator representing Kaduna South Senatorial Zone at the National Assembly, said; “I have witnessed too many mass burials in Southern Kaduna. There was a time we buried 134 people in various mass graves in two days.
“If you still think that there’s going to be a government that is going to defend you . . . well, I am sorry for you,” the lawmaker told the massive crowd of mourners comprising political as well as Christian leaders from Southern Kaduna.
According to him; “This Mass was organised for the world to see the kind of evil that has been visiting us and we have been burying our kinsmen silently, just to await the next mass killings.
“But this time, the world must see this and bear witness that we are under genocide. If we the leaders speak against it, we are branded haters of peace.”
Also speaking at the funeral Mass, the Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan Diocese, Most Rev Julius Yakubu Kundi said the elite and politicians from Southern Kaduna have betrayed their common people.
“These innocent, poor villagers lying in these coffins would have not been there if you, our elite and politicians, did what you should do. Because I know that you have the means of doing it when you know that we have no one to protect us. But because of greed and lack of foresight, you have abandoned our people.”
In his homily, Fr. Billiyok Joseph Abba said; “The people that committed this heinous crime against this Christian community may have injured us physically, but our Faith in Jesus Christ remains unshakable.
“They have cut down the lives of these brethren, but they have only hastened them into martyrdom and immortality with God, our Maker.”
The Clergy accused the Federal and State governments of being disinterested in tackling crime and criminality now widespread in the country, adding; “We must not be moved into the ways of the aggressors,” he said, “because the anger of our Lord would soon be unleashed on our enemies very soon.”
For the Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State Chapter, Rev. Joseph Hayab, helplessness and lamentations can no longer be an option, saying; “We have written enough petitions, wrote too many press statements, organised press conferences and held several protests. No one appears to read or see us.”
Sounding a note of warning, the CAN Boss said; “Maybe t
he only time they will listen to us is if one day they enter a village and they are surrounded and none of them comes out. That day, they will listen.”
On his part, the President of Southern Kaduna People Union (SOKAPU), Hon Jonathan Asake alleged there was a well designed agenda to chase out natives of Southern Kaduna from their traditional communities and supplant a hostile, foreign one.
“As I stand here today, 104 of our communities in Southern Kaduna have been captured by armed herdsmen and thousands have been displaced with no consequence to the assailants.”
Asake, who lamented the indifference by both the Federal and Kaduna State governments to the plight of Southern Kaduna people, said; “Our people are under a clear genocidal threat and the government must he held responsible for all these massacres.”
In what many described as the continued insensitivity of the Kaduna state government in addressing the insecurity clearly raging the Southern Senatorial zone, an official representation was conspicuously absent at the occasion.
Similarly, no serving government official, elected or appointed from Southern Kaduna, showed up at the funeral Mass.
Amid uncontrollable wailings and flowing tears, the caskets were eventually lowered into a mass grave dug by an excavator at Madamai around 5 pm.
On Sunday, September 27, 2021, Ma’damai and the neighbouring Abum area, were attacked by armed herdsmen with about 38 people killed, nine severely injured and 40 homes razed in the process.
This incident was the second attack on Ma’damai, the first being on August 15, 2021 in which five persons were killed and 26 houses burnt.
Till date, no group or individuals have openly own up as masterminds of the invasion or given reasons for the criminally bloody attack on the villagers. – With agency reports
