Chairman, Middle-Belt Elders Forum and chairman, Southern Kaduna Elders Forum, Gen. Zamani Lekwot (rtd), has said that the killings in Southern Kaduna have drastically reduced with the exit of Nasir el-Rufa’i as governor of Kaduna State.
Lekwot stated this in an interview on a television programme yesterday, where he also commended el-Rufa’is successor, Uba Sani for being pro-active in ensuring that peace returns to the North-West state.
He said, Southern Kaduna citizens have lived in peace over the years. We managed our differences with other Nigerians that have found it necessary to come and live with us. Things were going well until el-Rufa’i emerged as governor with an agenda to divide the state and in a recent video clip he confessed that his agenda was to Islamise Southern Kaduna.
Religion was never an issue because Islam and Christianity are the two closest religions. He decided to have nothing to do with Southern Kaduna. What crime did we commit? No crime at all. He also confessed that even at the national level he used the bandits to win the election in 2015.
When he assumed office here he also confessed that he knew where the bandits came from. He went to where they were, paid them money to stop killing Southern Kaduna people which made the situation worse. In the end, he left the State more divided on tribal and religious lines.
The former military governor of Rivers State added: I said, somewhere in a recent interview, that in Southern Kaduna many family compounds have both Muslims and Christians. We had no problem at all. He planted the seed of discord; and since he left, I am happy to say that with the change in government, the tempo of the killings and destruction have drastically reduced because of the positive posture of his successor, Uba Sani.
In fact, he has come up with an initiative to set up a meeting between the elders of Northern Kaduna and Southern Kaduna. We have held two meetings, and they were very successful. A ray of sunshine has appeared at the end of the tunnel. We are ever ready to cooperate with whoever God has chosen as our governor, Lekwot added.
