Southern Kaduna Crisis: CAN Meets Gov El-Rufai

The governor threw the challenge when he received National President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Samson Ayokunle on Monday in Kaduna.

Gov Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State has again challenged those claiming genocide and land grabbing in Southern Kaduna to present evidence of such atrocities.

He stressed that the southern Kaduna crisis was nothing more than “totally unnecessary frenzy of communal attacks, reprisals and revenge.”

El-Rufai noted that the latest crisis was triggered by a dispute over a piece of land.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the CAN President was briefed by security chiefs on the nature of the crises which spurned over 40 years and efforts being made by the government to contain it in the last one month.

“The briefings represent our answer to the terrible avalanche of skewed narratives of the current crisis, ranging from outright lies about the nature of the conflict to baseless claims that the Kaduna State Government is doing nothing to contain and resolve it.

“Part of the false narrative of the history of violent conflict in southern Kaduna is the loose use of terms like land-grabbing and genocide. They are being used in this current cycle of conflict, just as they were in the 2016/17 and the 2011/2015 cycles.

“We have requested and encouraged anybody to present evidence of an inch of land within Kaduna State that has been forcibly or illegally occupied.

“Were such a clear, physical and actual transgression to occur, it will constitute not only injustice against the community displaced, but a challenge to the authority of the state within its territory that cannot be allowed to stand.

“We challenge anyone to characterise or differentiate the communal clashes, attacks and killings in parts of Northern and Central Kaduna State, as well as in Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto and Niger States from those in Southern Kaduna.

“Is it because in all the other cases, the victims are lesser humans or lacking in voice and media hype? What happened to our common humanity?”

The governor also briefed the CAN delegation of the efforts the government has made since 2015 to stop the violent conflict, address its causes and create a path for the diverse communities to live in peace and security.

He said that some of the efforts included the setting up of a committee chaired by Gen. Martin Luther Agwai to study and proffer ways to stamp out attacks in southern Kaduna which had intensified since the violent aftermath of the 2011 elections.

Others were addressing the problem of sara-suka gangs, widespread cattle rustling and other acts of rural banditry, establishing military and mobile police outposts in Kafanchan, as well as a peace commission among others.

“The army established a base in Kafanchan while the Kaduna State Government bought an estate to accommodate a mobile police squadron.

“The Federal Government also extended the mandate of Operation Safe Haven, based in neighbouring Plateau State, to southern Kaduna and appointed a commander of the rank of colonel to lead the sector covering parts of the area.”

He added that the state also collaborated with other states in the Northwest and Niger State to undertake joint military and police action in the Kamuku-Kuyambana forest which served as a hideout to bandits, cattle rustlers and armed robbers in the Birnin-Gwari axis.

“In September 2017, we established the Kaduna State Peace Commission to help encourage communities in our state to adopt peaceful means of resolving their differences.