“Rape and Killings Continue”- Kaduna Senator Faults El-Rufai’s Claims on Southern Kaduna

Senator Danjuma Laah, a member of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) who represents Kaduna South at the National Assembly on Friday faulted claims made last Wednesday by Governor Nasir El-Rufai that his administration has successfully tackled the issue of killings and other security challenges in southern Kaduna. 

Senator Laah stated that the governor’s statement that the state witnessed no casualty from attacks by gunmen in Southern Kaduna in the past six months was not only untrue but also a ploy to cover up a rising spate of killings and rape in that part of the state. 

In a statement signed by the senator, he said, “The truth is that there is a steady and unrelenting onslaught on isolated communities in Southern Kaduna and environs, which has not been reported by the Press since last year. The murders, kidnappings, rapes and provocative destruction of crops, all by persons that the victims believe are Fulani, are just too numerous to be captured in just a press statement, since June 2015, till date. 

“I had even called the attention of the state government to this evil, as recent as this January at Barnawa Prison Staff College, Kaduna at the Bajju Annual Festival. I made it abundantly clear, that the killings in Southern Kaduna and related feeling of insecurity still persisted.” 

Senator Laah noted that in Sanga LGA, only a day after Governor El-Rufai made some communities sign a curious “peace” agreement, one Daniel Yakubu, fron Antor village, Aboro District, in Numana Chiefdom in Sanga LGA, was allegedly killed by some Fulani that were supposed to have signed the peace deal with the communities.

“The village head of Anfu (Doka Area) Kateri North in Kachia Local Government was shot dead on the 25th of February, 2016 in the presence of his family and the entire community for what the marauders described as his unrelenting collaboration with authorities in seeking to expose their activities. I made efforts to visit the victim’s family but I was stopped by security.

 “There have been killings in villages in Numana, Wasa and Nizom Districts to the extent that the police seemed overwhelmed by the situation. Rape of schools girls returning home from School is common in this area, with a particular case of a young girl in Yaute village, Ninzom Chiefdom last month where a 15 year old girl was ganged raped and is still receiving medical attention due to the severity of the rape,” he added.

Source: Vanguard