Herdsmen’s pogrom: Include Kaduna in states for visitation by panel, union demands

President laments allegation of indifference
The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to include Kaduna among the states to be visited by the Governor David Umahi-led sub committee on farmers/herdsmen crises, saying the southern and eastern parts of the state were still under attack by armed militias.

In a statement yesterday in Kaduna, the group’s spokesperson, Yakubu Kuzamani, decried the omission of the state from the agenda despite having incurred losses in lives and property worth billions of naira, especially by communities in the southern axis.

He described the exemption as a “deliberate attempt to suppress the truth and misinform the rest of Nigerians and the entire world that the crises in Kaduna were mere reprisals.”

According to him, instead of the incessant killings to subside, it had kept escalating.

Kuzamani stated that the presidential panel, with Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi State as chairman, was to visit Benue, Taraba, Zamfara and Adamawa states “in order to understand the different dynamics of the conflicts and develop long-term workable solutions.

“Other members of the sub-committee are governors of Plateau, Benue, Taraba and Adamawa states.”

The SOKAPU spokesperson lamented that “ Kaduna State, which was once the axis of horrendous killing fields where hundreds of people were murdered in cold blood by terrorists in several council areas, has been schemed out of this visitation schedule that holds the prospects of ending this orgy of bloodshed.”

Also yesterday, President Muhammadu Buhari described as dishonest the insinuations that nothing was being done to check the killings nationwide.

In his twitter handle: @MBuhari, he disclosed that those arrested in relation to the menace would be duly prosecuted.

The President further stated that there was no plan to colonise the country as being speculated in certain quarters, adding that the issue of ranching was conceived after consultations with relevant stakeholders.

He reiterated his commitment to ensure the peace and stability of the nation, saying the current bloodshed would soon be a thing of the past.