Press Release by Netzit Patriotic Front on Sanity of the Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai
Press Release by Netzit Patriotic Front on Sanity of the Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai
5th December, 2016.
Gentlemen of the press. It is no longer news that natives of Kaduna State, otherwise known as the southern Kaduna people have been under constant attacks by the fulani herdsmen of late, with tacit and overt support from the state and federal governments. The recent waves of violence began in June when some fulani youths encroached into the farm of a Ninte Native, and when the farmer naturally protested, the best response he got for protesting was not an apology but an assault. The farmer was cut down and left in the pool of his own blood. This was an unprovoked assaut by the fulani youth who happened to be the son of the Ardo in that community. Expectantly, the sons of the farmer were enraged when they heard of the assault against their father, and based on youthful exuberance coupled with justified anger, they were said to have taken their pound of flesh from the Fulani Ardo who went to the aggrieved Ninte community, at a time tempers were still very high, to resolve the issue.
In their 7 November 2016 press releases, the fulanis claimed that the son of the assaulted farmer, alongside other Ninte youths, assaulted the Ardo when he went for peace talks with the Ninte people, killed him, sang and danced to victory songs. The Fulani press release justified the attack against the farmer on the premises that villagers were farming on cattle routes and the southern Kaduna people were refusing the cattle grazing reserves and calling them settlers in their own land too. They described SOKAPU as a Christian union with anti-Muslim agenda. For the above and more, the Fulani best way to respond was to burn down the whole of Ninte village and massacre its inhabitants. Not only that, it was to follow the Ninte survivors into Godogodo, burn down the houses there and massacre any inhabitant in sight. These atrocities were coupled with the complete terrorism on all neighbouring communities from Godogodo, Golkofa, Angwan Anjo, Akwa, Pasakori, with Gidan Waya recently joining the long list of assaulted villages and Kafanchan presently tensed up.
Chawai Chiefdom in Kauru local government area is not spared too as many people were massacred and many others displaced in an assault conducted a day after the governor erected a public apology bill board at the Samuru Kataf round about. As we write, thousands have been massacred and thousands more have been displaced. A most bizarre development is how the fulanis are settling in the lands of people they have massacred under the watchful eyes of Governor El-Rufai and the armed forces even against the UN charter on territorial preservation.
It is curious and unfortunate to note that the intensity and quick spread of these fulani-instigated violence across the length and breadth of southern Kaduna could be traced to the Kaduna State Governor’s body language that urges the fulani murderers on while intimidating and victimising the victims some more because the victims were non-muslims nor Hausa fulani like him, even against his oath of office. You will recall that on 6 April 2016, in an interview with channels, the governor claimed killings have ceased in southern Kaduna. He also claimed that the ratio of Christian to Muslim population in the state is 3/7. These claims met serious rebuff, with facts and figures, from a staunch human right activist, Dr. John Danfulani in multiple of his articles, and the senator representing Southern Kaduna, Senator Danjuma Laah, in a press release.
When the Godogodo assaults gathered momentum in early August, the Kaduna state fulani leader, Dr. Haruna Usman, came out and claimed responsibility and justified the massacres around 15 August 2016. This Haruna Usman was neither arrested nor cautioned by the governor, yet the governor claimed he was working towards finding a lasting solution to the menace. Under pressure, the state and federal representativesfrom southern Kaduna began to respond by taking the matter up at their various assemblies. In the 7 November 2016 press release of the fulanis yet again, they claimed part of the immediate cause of their recent attacks against southern Kaduna communities was because the southern Kaduna representativeswere taking the matter up. At the 1 December 2016 southern Kaduna economic summit, the commissioner of Agriculture echoed the same line of thought when he said the killings will take place, but it is our reaction that matters.
SOKAPU leadership was not spared either as it has come under intense criticism from both the governor and the fulanis for daring to ask the southern Kaduna people to defend themselves. The SOKAPU president, Solomon K. Musa, in a press release with respect to the 2 August 2016 massacres in Godogodo, bemoaned government negligence when the attack started. He spoke of how those in government were intimated of the carnage before it went out of hand and how government did nothing. The security forces sent by government went in and were assisting the fulanis to compromise the villagers some more and massacre them some more. More massacres took place with the military already on ground and their only response was to arrest the bereaved youths for being in possession of dane guns for self defence. After such arrests, the fulanis always return to kill some more. A very sad one was when some youths were advised by a soldier to go hide their weapons because soldiers were coming for cordon and search; only for the fulanis to arrive hours after to kill, steal and destroy. A most embarrassing of such massacres was when the army gave a report of how a combined forces of the army, the police and the local vigilantes gallantly repel the fulanis in Godogodo, but ended up losing a handful of the local vigilantes. The report claimed only one fulani was killed with zero casualty from the army and the police. By the time one juxtapose the word ‘gallant’ with 15 casualties from the local vigilantes and just one casualty from the fulanis, you will see the message the army were trying to convey through that report. You will understand why the Area Commander of Kafanchan, ACP Ibrahim Abubakar, was heard bragging that the fulanis have what it takes to destroy southern Kaduna. The country’s armed forces are clearly joining forces with the fulanis against the natives they were detailed to protect.
Gentlemen of the press, the Kaduna State Governor has made himself a law unto himself in defiance to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. He alone, and not the judiciary, determines what or who is a criminal and who should be prosecuted. He has completely compromised the security apparatus in the state to be loyal to him against the constitution.
In Pasakori, men in military uniform massacred a village head and six other persons after feigning to be holding a security meeting with the victims in attendance.
The fulanis wrote several hate speeches against the southern Kaduna people, justifying their atrocities and crimes against humanity without a single word of caution from the governor, but the same governor is set to threaten SOKAPU over their press releases where they charged the southern Kaduna people to rise in self defence. The governor could neither arrest Dr. Haruna Usman nor even caution him over his 15 August 2016 utterances, but the governor was quick to caution CAN president over utterances on the southern Kaduna massacres.
In a recent development, the governor admitted to sponsoring the fulanis but claimed he was paying them to keep the peace. We are wondering at how he unilaterally arrived at the decision, without the state assembly, of using state funds to pay terrorists for their atrocities when their victims are languishing in hunger and homelessness across southern Kaduna. This is not only criminal of the governor, but a huge compromise to security in the state as it can only make killing an appealing business since there is a reward to it.
After such criminal payment to terrorists, the governor has another threat for people who were acting within the dictates of the constitution in criminalizing the call for self defence by calling it a hate speech. The governor claimed you can’t defend yourself when there is a government. A government that has woefully failed in its fundamental function of ensuring the security of lives and properties can not honestly call itself a government. Besides the constitution didn’t say self defence can only be employed where there is no government – and especially not a government that has not met the expectations of the electorates in ensuring law and order, but rewarding criminals and punishing law-abiding citizens.
The constitution of the federal Republic of Nigeria Section 33(2)(a) allows the use of force as is reasonably necessary for the defence of any person from unlawful violence and for defence of property. The fulani massacres are unlawful violence and it has become necessary to employ the use of force for self defence. And those calling for self defence are law-abiding citizens. The criminal here is the governor who not only pay the fulani terrorists to continue murdering people in the name of paying them to keep the peace, but also using the armed forces to keep arresting the local leaders and youths of the victimised southern Kaduna people on trump up charges while intimidating and victimising vocal activists of southern Kaduna extraction. Dr. John Danfulani is a typical example. He had Dr. John Danfulani suspended from his place of work and got him detained for six days then forced the Doctor to resign his appointment with Kaduna State University. As if that was not enough, he came down hard on the Doctor late October by having him locked up for 12 days more. As we write, the district head of Goska District in Kaninkon Chiefdom and youth leader are still under detention even where their subjects were massacred.
Given the above, we have come to the sad conclusion that the Kaduna State governor is mentally imbalance and unfit to continue as Governor of Kaduna State. He needs to vacate Kashim Ibrahim House immediately if sanity must return to the state. We hope the international police will quickly pick him up to be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. We members of the Netzit Patriotic Front strongly call on the southern Kaduna people to defend their right to life with every available force within their disposal. The government has failed and woefully too. The southern Kaduna people must never rely on an inept and sick Goverment for her safety. Southern Kaduna people must rise above putting too much confidence on the government to putting too much confidence on God and herself as it is not only the fulanis that the southern Kaduna people are up against, but the government of a governor with a ruthlessly criminal tendencies based on mental disorder.
Signed: George Makeri
Nenzit Patriotic Front
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