Government Remains Indifferent To Killings And Humanitarian Crisis In Southern Kaduna Communities – SOKAPU  

BY AMOS TAUNA, KADUNA – The President of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Hon. Joathan Asake has said that the indifference of the Nigerian government to the huge pervasive crime and the humanitarian crisis in Chikun and Birnin Gwari Local Government Areas of Kaduna State, should attract the attention of the world.

He declared that SOKAPU believes that under the current arrangement, ethnic nationalities of Nigeria cannot be guaranteed equality before the law, safety and security and equal access to resources, stressing that only a restructured Nigeria can guarantee these.

Hon Asake said that Southern Kaduna is still under siege by armed herdsmen, who have been killing law-abiding natives in their communities, including looting villages and kidnapping some for ransom.

He further said that concerned stakeholders and well-meaning Nigerians believe that there is an agenda to uproot the Christian population in the affected communities and replace them with herdsmen.

The SOKAPU President, who stated these when he led members of his Executive committee on a courtesy visit to the former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, said that armed herdsmen have taken over some villages in Chikum and Birnin Gwari Local Government Areas and are grazing their animals on the crops of the original inhabitants especially in Chikun LGA.

He said; “As we are here to see you, there are several communities that had to flee for safety with men, women and children with the only clothes they have on them as what they have as a living.

“The affected people are starving in refugee camps, though some are living on the margins with relatives in safer areas.

“SOKAPU believes that under the current arrangement, ethnic nationalities of Nigeria cannot be guaranteed equality before the law, safety and security and equal access to resources. Only a restructured Nigeria can guarantee these.

“We therefore want to assure our partners in this project that Southern Kaduna is ready for a renegotiated Nigeria,” Asake opined.

Asake said that the SOKAPU leadership visited Fani-Kayode for being a friend of the Southern Kaduna people in words and deeds and to commend his courage in speaking truth to power.

Responding, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, described the ongoing attacks on Southern Kaduna by criminal Fulani herdsmen as “unbelievable wickedness,” and wondered why Nigeria has turned its back on the people of Southern Kaduna.

Fani-Kayode said that Southern Kaduna is undergoing very terrible things under herdsmen terrorists stressing that some of the wickedness Southern Kaduna people are enduring are unbelievable.