The carnage in the southern parts of Kaduna may have eased for now, but anger continues to grow over the alleged complicity of state officials, in what has been described as ethnic cleansing.
Many point to the ease with which the alleged killers meandered past military check points, carried out their carnage undisturbed by military and other security officials, who were allegedly called, but did not allegedly respond.
One respondent recalled that a state official was quoted in the past as having said that any attack on the Fulani will be met with a ruthless response from them. “Now that he is occupying high office, did he allow a corridor for ease of movement and no response from the security forces?”
There have been allegations of attacks on Fulani residents in the area, but the indigenes are asking for evidence of such.At press time, none of the Fulani groups has come out openly to speak on attacks on them. Watchers suggest the attacks might have been on their cattle, the source of their livelihood.
Last week, residents of some of the communities sent out messages to indigenes, abroad, the State capital, Lagos, Abuja, and other major towns and cities lamenting their plight and giving a list of communities that have been ravaged.
A copy of one of such messages forwarded to Nigeria Everyday reads: “This is a call for SAVE OUR SOULS- SOS. Apart from the serial attacks on Adara Communities from 12/2/20 to March’20, those from 23.4.20 have been terrifying! On 23rd April Kujeji was attacked. 2 people were killed and over 20 houses burned. On 25th April Kikwari was attacked and 3 people were killed. On 11th May Gonan Rogo was attacked and 17 people were killed. 12th May saw simultaneous attacks on Ungwan Rana and IDANU-DOKA leaving 1 person dead and 2 critically Injured. This morning of 13th May the attack was on Makyali by 7am. 10 people were killed leaving many injured. By 6.30 pm of same 13/5/20, Ungwan Rana again and Ungwan Mudi both under Doka Avong have been under severe attacks with houses being burned! We’re worried with the close military presence to the latter communities but remain inactive because of bureaucratic bottlenecks! Help”.
None of the spokesmen of the Kaduna State government reacted to the message, 48 hours after it was sent to them.
But Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) spokesman, Mr. Luka Binniyat, who said Sunday that there was no reported incident on Saturday said concerning the distress message on Friday: “That desperate call is genuine and the urgent need for intervention on the pogrom against the Adara of Kajuru LGA of Kaduna is even more dire.
“As I make this response Adara communities are fleeing with loads on their heads, dragging their children along in palpable fear of the ongoing carnage against them by Fulani militia.
“In the past 24 hours, not less than 27 Adara have been murdered in cold blood by Fulani militia bent on occupying their lands.
“It is simply a case of innocent persons being killed in their sleep by marauding Fulani militia, and absolutely not a case of ‘clash’ between herdsmen and farmers.”
We are therefore shocks and pained by the allusion made by President Mohammadu Buhari through his spokesman, Shehu Garba, that it was “revenge and counter attacks.”
“All our victims have been identified and their homes located. And we have published most of them.
“We want President Mohammadu Buhari to tell us the names of his Fulani kinsmen that have been killed by Adara and their homes occupied to justify that obnoxious notion of ‘revenge’.
“This is the same false narrative and propaganda by Kaduna state government whose total bais and hate for the Adara is well known and documented.
“Little wonder, even with over 7 well manned military check points on the troubled axes, no help has been extended to the Adara as Fulani militia continue to mow down our people and destroy villages with barbaric impunity never imagined in 21 century.”
When the video of the comments of SOKAPU President, Hon. Jonathan Awake, went public, Southern Kaduna indigene and commentator on public affairs, Rev. Polycarp Gbaja, saidd that what was happening was “deeply disquieting.”
He adds: “This cannot and should not continue.
“There must be a well expressed outrage from every corner of this country and indeed Africa, against the steady brutal and gruesome terrorist murders by the Fulani Herdsmen Militia in Southern Kaduna, Birnin Gwari and Giwa LGAs, Plateau, Benue, Nassarawa, Katsina, Zamfara, Taraba, Adamawa States.
“And without significant and decisive action by the Federal Government, beyond extended rhetoric and perfunctory late token knee-jerk reactions, to use the able might of the Nigerian Defense, with its full import of intelligence and paramilitary agencies, to end this systematic and deliberate pogrom of genocidal proportions of ethnic cleansing that has gone on for a full decade.
“The Global Community must raise its voice and hand, against this untoward and unacceptable malfeasance of security failure that has, mand is claiming thousands of lives of indigenous Nigerian communities.
“This incumbent Regime has simply refused to act decisively, in line with its primary sworn duty and obligation to protect lives and property from the marauding terrorists, they have repeatedly told us came from strange borders.
Enough is enough!!
“The descent to a point of a hell of no return has begun, yet the body language of its rulers show an incapacity of empathy, total disconnect with the pains of citizens it claims to serve, or a deeply malevolent callousness of reprehensible darkness that smacks of deliberateness of a complicit bent.
“It is not a lack of capacity, but a lack of will to do the needful.
“The blood of tens of thousands of innocent men, women and children dismembered, killed, abducted, raped, dispossessed, displaced, traumatized and literally destroyed, cries to the high Heavens.
“We must all rise and hold our rulers responsible for their actions or inactions.
It is a very dark day for Nigeria.
We must reject this evil narrative as our future.”