A group, Southern People in the Diaspora (SOKAD), USA chapter has while condemning the killings in their place of origin, tasked traditional rulers in the area to speak out against the development.
SOKAD made the call in a statement jointly signed by its USA President, Alice Osunde and Secretary, Stanley Ayashim, made available to our correspondent on Wednesday April 26, 2023.
“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.
“These leaders must remind the government that it has the capacity to stem the violence in the area, so it must be seen to act with utmost haste,” the statement said.
According to the statement titled, “Runji Village Attack” members of SOKADUSA condemned in strong terms, 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 LOCATED IN the Zangon Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
“This unprovoked attack occurred barely four 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 in also 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 obviously calculated to inflict maximum damage, as those who master mind the dastardly act systematically aimed at the genocidal extermination of the people of Southern Kaduna, almost seem invisible and beyond reach for justice,” the group said.
According to them, “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 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,” the statement said.
It stressed that, “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 defence skills to those volunteering to constitute the vigilante force.
“We are aware that technologies such as phone tracking, geo-orbits satellites, drones, and old-fashion spying could be deployed to apprehend these miscreants. Yet, no steps have been taken to sanitize our surroundings with such devices,” the statement added.
They further said that the incessant killings witnessed by the people of Southern Kaduna reflect a desire by marauders to extinct the people from their ancestral land.
“We have no 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 government to apprehend these political marauders in order to end this incessant violence.
“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 sympathies with every individual who has in one way or the other been negatively impacted by these random killings,” they said.
By; JACOB ONJEWU DICKSON