Dokpesi Calls On Govt To Stop Southern Kaduna Killings

BY SEGUN ADEBAYO, ABUJA –The Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the African Independent Television (AIT), High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, has called on both the Federal and state governments to stop the ongoing killings in Southern Kaduna.

Making the appeal when a group, Leaders of Thought Across Nigeria, led by former  governor of Anambra state, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife, paid a solidarity visit at his Abuja home over his recovery from COVID-19 , Dokpesi said life is sacred and that it was the responsibility of government to protect lives and property of citizens.

“I am really disturbed by the level of killings in Southern Kaduna. Life is sacred and governments should do all within their power to protect it. This is not the Nigeria we were dreaming of after independence. We were dreaming of a nation where justice and equity will hold sway and lives and properties will be protected the government.

“Both the Federal and the state governments should spare no efforts in bringing to end these killings. Nigerians should be protected and government should focus on bringing development to the people”, said Dokpesi.

The Founder of The AIT was responding to comments by Hon Jonathan Asake, who represented the President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr Pogu Bitrus, on the ongoing massacres and destruction of towns and villages, especially in the southern part of Kaduna state.

Asake, who is the National President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), had told the gathering of distinguished leaders of Nigeria’s ethnic nationalities that the decimation of communities and killings were still ongoing despite the current lockdown order in Kaduna state.

“Currently, Southern Kaduna villages and towns are being sacked, people killed and these attacked towns are being occupied by invaders. The world does not know anything about it as the media, especially the mainstream media, have come under pressure not to report these tragedies.

“It is on record that a town called Badna in Chikun Local Government Area was invaded by herdsmen militia and kidnapped no fewer than 52 people. Not only were food barns and houses burnt, the terrorists took the abducted persons to faraway Katsina state. They had raise the sum of N10 million through sales of their farmlands to obtain their freedom.

“After release from their kidnappers’ den, they were brought to the Kaduna Government House by the Katsina State Police Command. When they arrived in Kaduna Government House, they were neither profiled nor taken to any medical facilities to ascertain their level of health. Thereafter, they were taken back to their sacked village with no security. Life for the community has been reduced to cascading impoverishment as the community depends only on charity to survive the current lockdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“SOKAPU was at Badna village to provide palliatives and could see the despondency and despair written all over their faces. I want to alert Nigerians and the entire world that Southern Kaduna has come under existential threat as a result of the incessant attacks on our communities. We call on prominent Nigerians and the international community to come to our rescue and save our people from the gale of killings ripping across our towns and villages  in Southern Kaduna”, Asake pleaded.