The Kaduna State governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Jonathan Asake, has said that residents, comprising no fewer than 148 communities in Southern Kaduna, have been displaced by bandits.
He said these in a published interview on Monday while reacting to a comment by Kaduna State Governor, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i, that the terrorists have formed a parallel government in the State.
Asake, who is the erstwhile President of Southern Kaduna People Union, (SOKAPU), also disclosed that he had been visiting the communities destroyed and plundered by bandits-terrorists in the State since he assumed office in September 2019, until he resigned in July 2022. The former SOKAPU president added that 80% of Kaduna residents in Chikun local government area have been banished by the terrorists and forced into Internally-Displaced Persons (IDP) camps.
He further said: “Ever since I became the president of SOKAPU, from November 2019 until I resigned last month, all we have been doing in SOKAPU is visiting communities ravaged by these insecurities; and visiting people that have been displaced by people from their communities into IDP camps. We have been crying all along that our people are being attacked; the people of Kaduna State are being attacked in their various communities. At the last count, we have nothing less than 148 communities that were displaced in Southern Kaduna alone, let alone other parts, like Igabi local government area.
He continued: “We have continued to cry out on how these terrorists, called bandits, have forced members of our communities into IDP camps. Over 80% of the communities in Chikun local government area have been displaced”.
Asake accused the State government of living in self-denial of the reality when SOKAPU had first raised the alarm. “When we first cried out that these terrorists have displaced our people and formed a parallel government, the government denied it. But now, he confessed that indeed, they have formed a parallel government. The chicken has come home to roost”, he lamented.
