Southern Kaduna: No longer at ease

Posted by admin Kaduna, State News Wednesday, March 21st, 2012

March 21, 2012 by Segun Olatunji 9 Comments

Kaduna State Governor, Patrick Yakowa
| credits: File copy

SEGUN OLATUNJI examines incessant attacks on Southern Kaduna villages and notes that the area has not known peace since the last April presidential poll

Although the tension generated by the last April post-presidential election violence in Kaduna and the other of the Northern states may have eased off, the resumption of nocturnal raids by bandits on Southern Kaduna villages after a few weeks of respite has thrown the people of the area in deeper confusion and anxiety.

In fact, fresh fears have gripped the people of Southern Kaduna following the recent upsurge in the secret killing of their kinsmen by yet-to-be-identified persons since the middle of last year.

Last Thursday’s killing of no fewer than 10 persons, including a pastor in Kufara Community in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, has once again upped the fears and tension in the area.

Between July and September last year, four different attacks were carried out on villages in the Southern part of Kaduna State by unknown gunmen, leaving a total of five persons dead and scores of others seriously injured.

Last July 24, unknown gunmen suspected to be from Niger Republic carried out a dawn attack on two villages in the area, Angwan Yaro and Yuli in Kussom District of Jema’a Local Government Area. Although no life was lost during these attacks, the police dismissed them as mere rumours. The Chairman of Christian Association of Nigeria in Jema’a, Rev. Joe Yari, however, insisted that the villages were actually attacked.

As the heat was simmering down, another attack was carried out by unidentified gunmen numbering about 10 in the early hours of August 21, 2011 on the household of the district head of Fadiya Bakut in Bajju District of Zango Kataf. During the attack, two persons were killed, while others escaped death with serious injuries.

Also on the eve of the last year’s Sallah celebrations, unknown persons set the Kafanchan market ablaze around 2am. But for the swift intervention of the soldiers drafted to maintain security in the area, the burning of the market would have sparked off another crisis.

Early September 2011, another Southern Kaduna community fell victim to the unknown night marauders. In fact, that night will forever remain the darkest in the lives of the people of the quiet and sleepy village of Angwa Rana Bitaro in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

The village located in the Christian-dominated Southern Kaduna was thrown into anguish and wailing that night as a group of unknown but heavily armed marauders stormed the community about midnight, killing three members of a family and seriously injuring many others

And when the people thought they were getting some reprieve from the marauders, unknown gunmen again struck and carried out a midnight raid on Tabak Village near Zonkwa in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of the state killing two persons and injuring 14 others inside a church.

Our correspondent gathered that the unidentified gunmen swooped on unsuspecting worshippers at St. Joseph Catholic Church during a vigil.

An eye witness, who pleaded anonymity claimed that some of the unknown assailants stormed the village through the cattle grazing route traversing the area while the others headed for the Catholic Church where they opened gunfire on the worshippers.

Two female worshippers were killed in the melee while several others escaped from the church with various degrees of injuries.

A mild drama, however, occurred during the governor’s visit to the scene as hundreds of angry protesting women and youths held him hostage for over an hour.

The protesters, who chanted various anti-government slogans, said the state government had failed to protect them against attacks from the assailants who had formed the habit of launching attacks on them at night.

Some youth leaders in the area eventually prevailed upon the protesters to let the governor who was in company with the General Officer Commanding One Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, Maj.-Gen. Joseph Shoboiki and the Director of the state command of the State Security Service, Mr. Yomi Zamba visit the injured victims in the hospital.

In spite of the crisis generated by this latest killings, the marauders were not done yet as they soon struck again in nearby Kurmi Bi Village near Zonkwa in the same Zango Kataf Local Government Area killing one and injuring another behind the palace of the traditional ruler of the area, Agwam Bajju.

Our correspondent gathered that during the attack, which occurred at midnight, the unknown gunmen shot indiscriminately at the people.

The immediate past Police Commissioner, in the state, Mr. Ballah Nasarawa, had then said his command had arrested eight persons suspected to have participated in the attack on Angwa Rana Bitaro.

Nasarawa added that two survivors of the attack had identified the eight suspects.

But the Christian Association of Nigeria chapter in the state did not hide its dissatisfaction with the action taken so far by the police on the rising wave of secret killings in the Southern part of the state.

CAN said that it was deeply troubled by the confession of some of the suspects arrested last year in an alleged terrorists’ training camp in Bauchi State.

The suspects had told the police in Bauchi that they were training in preparation for a reprisal on some communities in Southern Kaduna before they swooped on them.

The Kaduna CAN therefore appealed to security agencies and the state government to take decisive steps aimed at putting a stop to this dangerous trend.

The immediate past Secretary of CAN in the state, Rev. Yunusa Nmadu, also called on the security agencies and the state government to ensure that all those involved in the reprisals and secret killings in the state were apprehended and prosecuted, accordingly.

Nmadu stressed that the confession of the suspects arrested in the alleged training camp in Bauchi had become a source of worry to the people in Kaduna State, especially those in the Southern parts of the state.

He, therefore, stated that the security agencies and the Kaduna State Government must immediately swing into action to apprehend the perpetrators of the killings that had been occurring in the Southern parts of the state following the last April post-presidential election.

The former CAN secretary stressed that the security network in the state must be further strengthened in order to effectively check the unfortunate killings.

The Kaduna CAN also expressed concern over the recent midnight attack on villages and the church.

CAN said it was unthinkable that such nocturnal attacks have become a commonplace in the southern part of the state where since last April, police and military checkpoints have been set up and unofficial curfew imposed on the residents.

CAN said that the killing of innocent worshippers in a church during a vigil by the unknown gunmen had introduced a dangerous dimension to the unfortunate development in Southern Kaduna since the last April violence.

With regard to the latest attack in the area, witnesses said that the gunmen numbering about 20 descended on three villages in Kufara community at about 10pm on Thursday and continued their onslaught against the villagers until the early hours of Friday.

The Chairman of Chikun LGA, Mr. Auta Mamman Busa, for instance, was too shocked and traumatised to make any comment.

A witness, Sunday Amos, who claimed to have escaped the attack however said the gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen shot indiscriminately at the villagers and at the same time set many houses on fire as residents fled.

Some youths in the area have also pointed fingers at the herdsmen for the incessant attacks.

The youth leaders who pleaded anonymity blamed the state government and security agents for the attacks alleged that the Fulani masterminds still felt aggrieved about their losses and expulsion from several parts of the area during the last April post-presidential election violence.

Confirming the claim on the identity of the marauders perpetrating the killings in Southern Kaduna villages, the new Commissioner of Police in the state, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar, said on Saturday that Fulani herdsmen who lost family members and possessions in the area during the 2011 post-presidential election violence could be responsible for the crime.

He added that the attack occurred only at Nayida Talakkwacha village but the Chairman of Chikun Local Government, Mr. Auta Maman Busa insisted that the killings also took place at Kufara, Dukunu and Dayi villages.

But the state chapter of the Action Congress of Nigeria in a reaction to the security situation in the state said that Governor Patrick Yakowa has lost his grip on the running of the state, especially with the rising wave of insecurity.

The opposition party therefore called on the governor to immediately resign from office and allow a competent person to take over the affairs of the state.

The state ACN Publicity Secretary, Mordecai Ibrahim in a statement argued that if the state government was serious about the security of life and property of its citizens, last year’s arrest of Kaduna-bound alleged terrorists in Bauchi State by the police would have served as a lesson to the government to avert the continued attacks on villages in the state.

The ACN further disclosed that recently there were security reports advising the state government to tighten security around the Internationally Recognised Grazing Fields traversing parts of Kaduna State and which have very thick forest boundaries with Plateau and Bauchi states.

But in a swift reaction, the governor’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Mr. Reuben Buhari said, “It is a pity that the ACN in Kaduna State is bent on inciting the good people of Kaduna against the government with falsehood and pure mischief. But the state government remains resolutely focused in its quest of transforming the state.”

-Punchwp_posts

Short URL: https://newnigerianpolitics.com/?p=19323

Posted by admin on Mar 21 2012. Filed under Kaduna, State News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry