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Okwe Obj, Abuja
Peacebuilders under under the umbrella of Southern Kaduna Peace Practitioners, (SOKIPEP), have appealed to Kaduna State governor, Nasir El’Rufai, to render financial assistance to those affected by the killings and kidnappings in Southern Kaduna particularly those in hospitals and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).
This is even as SOKIPEP thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for deploying Special Forces to quell the imbroglio rocking the area and hailed Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) for holding mediation talks between warring factions as it had restored peace among locals.
In a statement, yesterday by its National Coordinator, Rev. Dauda Fadia, he further appealed to locals to be mindful of their utterances in order not raise dust that would fracture the fragile peace in the area.
He said: “We, the entire Board, Management and Volunteers of Southern Kaduna Peace Practitioners (SOKIPEP) wish to strongly commend President Muhammadu Buhari, the Chief of Defence Staff, Chief Of Army Staff and the Commander Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) for the deployment of Special Forces to reinforce the security agencies in Southern Kaduna in response to the cry of Nigerians.
“We wish to strongly appeal to the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to use his fatherly heart and come to the aid of some of our people and our Fulani brothers who are injured and are in various hospitals without any form of assistance. This will go a along way in promoting forgiveness and reconciliation.
“We appeal to all groups in Southern Kaduna, including our clergy brothers to stop inciting the people by making unverifiable and inflammatory statements.
“As men of God of different faiths, we must preach peace and pursue same at all times.
“This goes to show that they are not bias and are sensitive to the plight of our people. We commend them for their tireless efforts in seeing that Southern Kaduna is peaceful and life returning back to normal.
“This effort, within this short period, had paid off. We are seeing results worthy of commendation.
“If efforts of this nature were initiated towards all the previous crises in our area in the past, we don’t think we would have had any recurrence.
“We strongly commend them, and as an organization, we will continue to support them. Our position is a reflection of incontrovertible facts on ground in the entire chiefdoms and villages we visited in Jema’a, Zango Kataf, Kaura and Sanga local governments during our peace appraisal tour.
“The villagers now have confidence in the military because of their friendly posture and quick response to threats which was a sharp departure from the past.
“We are very very happy that our people are now beginning to go back to their farms and normal business. They now live without fear of attacks, because the military men are strategically positioned in the hinterlands, forests and unimaginable places, where the attackers normally used to attack us.
” We want to particularly laud the the efforts of the Commander of Operation Safe Haven, the special military task force in charge of 4 local government areas in Southern Kaduna, for the several kinetic and non kinetic methods he is using to restore peace in the zone.
“We strongly believe this is among others is the main reason why peace has to a large extent returned to our area. We are impressed with the commitment of the Commander and his men towards restoring peace and ensuring security in the area.
“We also want to further thank the OPSH officers and men for providing security in most of the displaced villages. With this development, our people have started returning to their communities, even communities that have been displaced for more than a year, have now returned to their homes. This, to us, is a giant stride in the peace efforts.”
