There’s Grand Plot Against Adara People – Former ADA President

• Group seeks release of 9 Adara leaders held in prison.
BY AMOS TAUNA, KADUNA – A former National President of Adara Development Association (ADA), Barrister Danladi Yerima, has alleged that there is a grand plot to wipe out Adara as a people and their ancestral lands taken away. He vowed that that the Adara natives would survive and come back stronger.
Yerima made this assertion when a group known as Kaduna Coalition for Peace and Justice, staged a peaceful rally in solidarity with Adara nation at the premises of Atyap Town Hall, in Sabon Tasha, Kaduna.
According to Yerima, “Apart from past acts of unprovoked violence visited on our communities last year, the latest rounds of evil against us started on the 18th October 2018. Not less than 200 Adara natives were killed in Kasuwan Magani, in Kajuru LGA. Their corpses were carted to Kaduna mortuaries. We identified some, but we were prevented from taking their remains for decent burials. They were later buried in a mass grave by the state government. As I speak, we have no idea where they were buried.
“On the 19th October, our paramount ruler, Agom Adara, Dr. Raphael Maiwada Galadima, was ambushed, kidnapped and killed on the sixth day, after we paid ransom for his release.
After his burial in December, a government gazetted law was released. It said that Adara Chiefdom, had been split into two. There was an emirate on one side (Kajuru) and a Chiefdom (Kachia). The law was signed in August 2018. It means that even when our Agom was alive, he had ceased to be a ruler over his people unknown to him. It was two months after his death that the division of his chiefdom was made to us. Now, are we wrong to ask, ‘who killed Agom Adara?’”
As a beleaguered people, on the 10th of February, 2019, Unguwan Barde in Maro ward was attacked. 11 people were killed.
On the 26th February, 2019, Karamai, still in Maro district was invaded by scores of armed men. At least 46 people were killed, 200 homes, churches, clinic food stuff all burnt.
When we thought we have seen the worst, on 11th March, 2019, Dogon Noma, still in Maro district came under siege. We gave mass burial to 71 people. Later on we recovered about 10 more corpses in the bush. Not a single home is standing in that village.
A day later, Unguwan Gora was attacked, though most of the village was razed, only one person was killed. I have not even told you the number of injured persons.
With all this suffering, our leaders are the ones that have been arrested and put in jail. In the Kasuwan Magani assault that we lost over 200 members 77 of our youths were arrested, while only three from the other side were arraigned.
Those we believe to have carried out the act, are walking free with their leaders.
“We believe that there is an agenda to wipe the Adara and our lands taken. But we shall survive and come out better and stronger,” he said.
The Coordinator of the Coalition, Pastor Jerry Rawlings Pedok, who spoke during the rally, said that they had gathered to show solidarity with the Adara natives who have suffered casualties as a result of recent violence visited on some of their communities in Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State.
Pedok said that Kaduna state was under siege from all sides of the state and called on both the state and Federal government to end what he said had become a perennial circle of violent crime in the state.
He also decried the arrest and detention of nine Adara leaders in prison custody, saying it was an unfair one sided arrest of the victims, not the aggressors.
According to him, “All perpetrators of the murder and arson must be brought to book in a manner that reflects the true nature of the violence.
“Right now, the Adara are complaining that despite the fact that they remain the victims, all their leaders have been rounded up and imprisoned, while their tormentors are walking free.
“In the name of peace and justice, we call for the immediate release of all nine Adara leaders, and the scores of Adara youths under the detention of the state government, in the absence of non-arrest of the other side and putting them to trail.”
The coalition later presented food stuff items and cloths to the Internally Displaced (IDPs) in Kaduna.
There are currently over 10,000 Adara IDPs spread in five camps, with about 2000 in Sabo Tasha IDP camp, Kaduna.