From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Following the renewed killings by yet-to-be-identified gunmen in Zango Kataf local government area of Kaduna State, the Southern Kaduna People in the Diaspora – United States (SOKAD-USA) on Wednesday tasked political and traditional leaders of Southern Kaduna extraction to consider organising vigilance groups to tame the killings in the region.
Alice Osunde and Stanley Ayashim; President and Secretary respectively in a statement said their group believed that it is time to organise such local security groups to work with the Police and Military as seen in other parts of the country if the lives, property of the region would be prevented from being taking over by the suspected marauding terrorists.
“We the members of SOKADUSA condemn the recent mayhem which occurred last Saturday, 15th April 2023, resulting in the loss of 33 lives and injuries to innocent citizens in Runji Village, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
“This unprovoked attack occurred barely 4 months after the mass murder of 38 harmless villagers in Malagum, Kamuru–Ikulu and Abun (Broni Prono) also in Southern Kaduna on the 18th of December 2022.
“A month ago, 17 lives were lost, while an untold number of innocent persons were injured in Ungwan Wakili and other villages also in Zangon Kataf Local Government of Kaduna State.
“We find it incomprehensible that human lives have little or no value in Nigeria in general and Kaduna State in particular. These attacks are calculated to inflict maximum damage, as those who mastermind the dastardly act systematically aimed at the genocidal extermination of the people of Southern Kaduna, almost seem invisible and beyond reach for justice.
“Unfortunately, the real tragedy is that there is no empathy with the dispossessed by the political leadership of the State, as no prominent politician either in the legislature or the executive has made an attempt to visit violence-prone areas to condole those deprived of lives and limbs and lack the means to replace damaged shelters.
“Those who represent southern Kaduna at both the State and Federal level should be foremost in the search for solutions to the mayhem depleting our southern Kaduna populations. After all, those ravaged by violence supplied the votes you needed for office, while you promised that you would represent their interests. They need you now to speak up and defend them as the thoughts would have been that violence to one should be violence to all.
“We in the diaspora cannot help but feel that the areas that have been gutted by violence are on their own, defenseless, and forlorn, with only the Almighty God to plead their case.
“However, we feel that the time has come for the people of southern Kaduna to organize vigilante groups similar to those found in other parts of the country to support the police and other military outfits to secure lives and property.
“This should be done with the active cooperation of retired military personnel with the wherewithal to impart investigative and defense skills to those volunteering to constitute the vigilante force.
The incessant killings witnessed by the people of southern Kaduna reflect a desire by marauders to extinct the people from their ancestral land. We do not doubt that our people especially young men and women have sacrificed their time, money, and energies to preserve peace in the affected areas of the state plagued by violence.
“But we in the diaspora are frustrated that our efforts and those of these young men and women of southern Kaduna are not being complemented by the government to apprehend these political marauders to end this incessant violence.
“We call on the traditional rulers of the various ethnicities in Southern Kaduna to speak with one voice offering the state and federal governments advice on how best violence in their chiefdoms could be avoided while rallying for material and emotional support to areas devastated by these attacks.
“We sincerely hope that the political class, military, and religious leaders in Kaduna State would take the security of lives seriously, for it is necessary to prevent southern Kaduna and indeed the whole state from becoming a killing field.
(SOKAD USA) would like to take this opportunity to express our sympathy to the families of the departed souls brought about by the recent killings. Our hearts remain with all the families that now mourn their loss.
“Similarly, we sympathise with every individual who has in one way or the other been negatively impacted by these random killings”, the statement read in part.