Senator Danjuma La’ah, the Senator representing the good people of Southern Kaduna, said that according to the Leadership Newspaper of 4th December, 2016 under the headline: “Foreigners Behind Southern Kaduna Massacre”, Governor Nasir El-Rufai stated that some of them (Killer Fulani) were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal, adding,
“Many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.
“We got a group of people that were going round, trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging you to stop the killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation.
“They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, some we paid.”
Senator La’ah maintained that there was never in a time in 2011 that Fulani from Mali, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Mali and Senegal were killed in Southern Kaduna with their cattle.
He added, “This is a silly and an absurd lie. Southern Kaduna is not a junction of these countries. So how could they have all converged on Southern Kaduna on their usual migration back home?
“The Governor just invented this lie to make excuse for his imported murderous Fulani kindred to continue their extermination of our people and the occupation of our lands.
“As the main political leader and representative of Southern Kaduna at the Federal level, despite many overtures of trying to meet with the Governor over the insecurity in my zone with no success, he has never deem it fit to inform me of these actions so as to seek my views and that of my constituency over the matter.
“This is a very curious development, especially as I was able to make the Senate to pass a resolution asking the Federal Government to declare a State of Emergency on Security in Southern Kaduna last month.
“I expected him to cash on that, using his connection with the President and Commander-in-Chief. But, he was obviously not concerned.
“In the light of the above, the Federal Government, especially the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA, the Directorate of State Services, SSS, the Directorate of Military Intelligence, DMI and sundry agencies should look no further for the solution to the unrelenting killings in Southern Kaduna.
“Governor Nasir el-Rufai should also state how much of Kaduna State scarce resources have been moved to these killers and whether he has the authority of the law to so spend the money on enemies of Southern Kaduna and Nigeria.
“El-Rufai should also be investigated to find out if these moneys were not further put into the buying of more arms and the recruitments of more killers, who we strongly believe, are also jihadists.
“Though he has ferried much undisclosed amounts of money to murderers, I am pleading with Kaduna State indigenes and residents to ask why he has stubbornly refused to render basic assistance of rebuilding of even a home, or any form of monetary assistance to the surviving victims in Southern Kaduna.
Most are still left without food and shelter despite the modest assistance that some of us, churches, NGOs etc have continued to render from time to time.
“I am constrained to add that Nasir el-Rufai with his lack of will to show commitment to the insecurity in Southern Kaduna, and his resolve to carry on with over six Cattle Grazing Reserves in Southern Kaduna, he is actually creating new, permanent “conquered” settlements for his Fulani kinsmen.
“I said this because his Fulani brothers have killed people and chased them out from their communities and are now fully settled with their families and cattle in several villages in Kaura, Sanga and Jema’a Local Government Areas, while the governor turns his eyes the other way round.”
The statement therefore called on the people of Southern Kaduna to use every available legitimate means to defend their lives, properties and communities.
It reads, “History will not forgive our generation if we succumb to threats and blackmail and fail to defend ourselves and get wiped out. As Senator of the beleaguered area, l cannot support that we become sitting ducks each time they come killing. Again, if El-Rufai will not defend us, let us defend ourselves.”
I can feel the deep hurt and pain behind the words of Senator La’ah and I wholeheartedly concur with his submissions. The people of Southern Kaduna are going through hell and they certainly deserve better.
The sheer disdain and utter contempt that Governor El Rufai has for them can also be reflected in a television interview that he gave a while back in which he described the massive Christian population of Kaduna state of being only 30 per cent whilst he claimed that the Muslims were 70 per cent. This is false.
The fact of the matter is that at least 50 per cent, if not more, of the people of Kaduna state are Christian but it does not serve the Governor’s purpose to acknowledge or publicly admit that.
What a tragedy this is for both him and the good people of Kaduna.
His continuous resort to the use of religion in order to divide and rule the people of his state and to suppress and subvert the religious faith and legitimate aspirations of the Christian community and the minority Shiite Muslims will lead to nothing but even more division and chaos.