Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), has raised the alarm that there is a carefully planned and executed agenda to destroy the totality of livelihoods of its people, as it claimed that, over 100 people were killed and 12 communities displaced in the recent bandits’ attacks on Zangon-Kataf.
To this end, the union has called on the Federal Government to immediately declare bandits, armed herdsmen, kidnappers as terrorists following their devastating activities of killings and destruction of properties across the country.
The President of the Union, Jonathan Asake who made the call at a briefing in Kaduna yesterday said the activities of bandits have taken a more worrisome state with the destruction of farmlands and other property.
SOKAPU argued that there seems to be a recurring vicious circle of violence meted on Southern Kaduna communities that always coincides with the commencement of the rainy season which has often culminated into massive destruction of lives and property, including displacement of thousands of people.
According to SOKAPU President last year when the rainy season commenced in May, there were massive onslaughts of genocidal proportion across Southern Kaduna communities, particularly in Chikun, Kajuru, Kachia, Kaura, Kauru, Sanga, Jema’a and Zangon Kataf Local Government Area. These assaults left in their trail death, destruction and displacements, with a huge humanitarian crisis.
“Again, this year, with the commencement of another rainy season, the onslaughts have resumed which coincides with the period when our farming communities need to be on their farms. With particular reference are the recent attacks on communities in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area where no fewer than 100 people have been massacred within seven days, 12 villages completely decimated and over 90 per cent of Atyap land deserted by inhabitants over fears of frightening uncertainties.
“It is sadly unbelievable that 10 days after these massacres and displacement in our communities, from all observable indices, there appears to be a conspiracy of silence or a deliberate attempt by the government to downplay the severity of the atrocities and genocides being perpetrated by these attackers across our communities.
“We call on the Federal Government to immediately declare these armed Fulani herdsmen, kidnappers, bandits or whatever name they parade as terrorists.
“Government must set up the machinery to bring the perpetrators of these heinous crimes to book, return displaced communities to their homelands, rehabilitate and compensate displaced persons.
“Government should build IDP camps and direct NEMA, SEMA, among other agencies, to provide relief materials to displaced people.
“We call on the government to facilitate the formation of Civilian JTF across our communities to forestall incidences of fake security personnel going into our communities to unleash terror attacks on our people.
“We call on the military authorities to investigate claims by attacked villagers over the alleged involvement of their personnel that may have compromised their neutrality so as to preserve the reputation and confidence Nigerians have in them.
“We call on relevant security agencies to carry out a cordon-and-search operation in the Hausa-Fulani settler community of Zangon Kataf town where these attackers are said to operate from as it was done in Ladduga in 2014 with a view to retrieving deadly weapons in their possessions.
“It is our considered view that the intractable security situation is due to the unwillingness by Governor el-Rufai to tackle the security challenges headlong. We, therefore, call on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on Kaduna State.
“In conclusion, let me state here for the umpteenth time loud and clear, that whoever comes to our communities, either as individual or group, to kill, maim, rape, destroy and displace our people and take over our homelands, no matter how long it takes, every square inch of our lands will be recovered by our generation or future generations,” Asake said.
The Nation
