The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, (SOKAPU), has said it is tired of begging the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufa’i, to end the carnage going on in the area.
Lamenting the security situation in Southern Kaduna, the group stated that the region was now facing wanton killings which had become a reality for them for many years.
The groups expression of grief is coming on the heels of the June 5 attack by armed herdsmen on Maikori and three other Adara villages in Kajuru Local Government Area, Southern Kaduna, killing 32 persons and kidnapping 27 villagers.
This was the same day some armed gunmen stormed a Catholic church in Owo, Ondo State, and opened fire, killing 40 persons.
In the attack in Kajuru LGA, the villagers stated that a gun-mounted helicopter assisted the invaders, while over 30 people were abducted. The kidnappers have reportedly demanded N100m for their release.
According to one of the survivors, a native of Chikun local government area and former resident of Maikori, the villagers now lived in bunkers because of fear of further attacks.
Another resident, a teacher in one of the primary schools in the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, Our lives are finished. We cannot leave our ancestral lands to these militias who are bent on taking us back to the Stone Age. I was in the church service that day when it happened. These people came in the morning, in broad daylight.
Earlier in the year, they stormed a community around 11 a.m and killed every man. Any man who survived that attack must have not been around when they came. They also captured our women. Do you know that till today, nothing has been done? We are tired of begging (Nasir) el-Rufa’i to end these killings.
Reacting, the National President, SOKAPU, Jonathan Asake, in a published interview yesterday, said the Federal Government needed to intervene because, according to him, the State Government has shown that they are complicit.
We will involve the international community. We will write to the European Union, African Union, United Nations, Amnesty International and others that a war is going on in Southern Kaduna but is being neglected by the government of the day. We are dying every day; they should come to our aid, the group stated.
