Southern Kaduna Killings: Catholic Church Accuses El-Rufai of Alleged Bias

John Shiklam in Kaduna
The Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, Kaduna State, has accused the state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, of alleged bias in tackling the frequent killings by herdsmen in the southern part of the state.

In a statement yesterday, the Bishop of the diocese who is also the Chairman of Southern Kaduna Elders’ Association, Most Revd. Joseph Danlami Bagobiri, alleged that the governor was using state apparatus to harass and intimidate those who dare challenge the manner in which the crisis is being handled.
Bagobir condemned last Saturday’s attack on Asso village where 13 people were killed by suspected herdsmen.

The statement reads in part:
”Having presided over the mass burial of at least 10 Catholics along with their parish priest, Revd Fr. Alexander Yayock, the following day, I’m by conscience compelled to make the following statements:

“The attitude of the state government has been marred by lots of complicity and bias which exacerbated rather than ameliorated tensions.
“The governor in most cases seemed to have abdicated his responsibility of being governor to all us, and instead, gave in to the luxury of waging an unrelenting media campaign against Southern Kaduna people.

“He unabashedly takes sides with the armed herdsmen (His kinsmen) thereby failing in his responsibility as a true statesman, becoming therefore a biased umpire who blames and criminalises Southern Kaduna victims as the cause of the mayhem.

“The governor has made several efforts in the media to discredit figure of casualties that were arrived at through painstaking research, and is known for trying to change the true narrative by presenting the victims as the villain and the aggressors as the prey.
“The governor has the penchance of using state apparatus to insult, denigrate, intimidate, arrest and put in prison all voices of reason from Southern Kaduna who dare to challenge his handling of this crisis.

“ Among those that have fallen victims of his tyranny are traditional rulers, journalists, youths, political leaders, academicians, while threatening our lawyers and other leaders (religious and unions) with arrest for daring to speak out against the genocide.
“The primary responsibility of government as enshrined in the constitution is the protection of life and property of citizens irrespective of ethnic and/or religious persuasion.
“Any breach of this fundamental principle of social contract contravenes the very reason for which government exists for.

“Unfortunately, our government, both at the federal and state levels has failed woefully in this regard because of their inability to rise above ethnic and religious bias.
“If anything, government has shown outright partisanship in favour of the herdsmen to the disappointment of the majority Southern Kaduna indigenes.

“Because of government’s inability to serve as an un-biased umpire in the face of these crises, we are sometimes tempted to believe that there is a well-planned Jihad against the people of Southern Kaduna and Christians generally in Northern Nigeria as this is amply demonstrated by the incessant attacks and atrocities against the aborigines of the Middle Belt region in Northern Nigeria.
“The sole aim of these attacks is to conquer our people and occupy their lush lands and turn same into grazing fields for the marauding nomads.

“The governor of Kaduna State is pursuing this detestable policy by his plan to forcefully take over lands in Southern Kaduna and turn same to grazing reserves and routes for his kinsmen.
“To show government’s insensitivity on this volatile matter, there are ongoing expansionist plans to annex more land to the already existing grazing reserves at Ladduga in Ikulu chiefdom of Zangon Kataf Local Government Area and transmute that locality from being a district into an emirate.
“The killings continue unabatedly in fields and bushes, thereby preventing farmers from visiting and cultivating their lands.

“This is happening today as the military and other security forces mount road blocks in towns and major roads while bushes remain un-safe for farming.
“In the Godogodo and Pasakori attacks in Jemaá Local Government Area for example, the military merely watched and supervised the killings and burning of homes on the pretext that their mandate did not include fighting the herdsmen.
“When the youths mobilised themselves to repel the attackers, the soldiers deliberately blocked them from entering the town.

“The herdsmen and their collaborators turned the towns into killing fields and killed mostly women, children and the elderly who couldn’t run for cover.
“The level of barbarity was such that pregnant women got their wombs blown out and massacred before their children. And these innocent children were not spared either. This level of viciousness was never witnessed even in the brutal tyranny and regime of Adolf Hitler.

“What is most intriguing is the level of sophistication of weapons; AK 47, machine guns and many other deadly instruments of death are being freely used by the herdsmen, leaving wondering how these weapons got to their hands…..
“The killings with impunity in Southern Kaduna must not be allowed to continue. And government in the state has a special and irreplaceable role in bringing this scourge to an end. The current government in the state must follow the example of past governments by initiating measures that would unify rather than divide the people of the state on ethnic and religious lines as this government has been doing since its inception.

“We have had our challenges on harmonious coexistence in the past. But past governments demonstrated statesmanship in governance by bringing stakeholders across board to parley on how to resolve our indifference. The current administration in the state seems to dread this kind of interface which had proven to be effective in the past.

“Government must change its attitude from alignment with people of one ethno-religious group in the State, she must resist the temptation of acting as the mouthpiece of one group against others and begin to display true statesmanship in seeing and treating the entire state as its constituency.”