Governor Malam Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State at the weekend met with traditional rulers and heads of security agencies over the unfortunate security situation in Southern Kaduna.
The meeting, which took at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, had in attendance Chairmen of Interim Management Committee of the affected Local Government Areas, the Area Commander of Nigerian Police, Kafanchan Area Command, all Divisional Police Officers, Traditional Rulers and Ardos of Fulani communities.
At the meeting, El-Rufai expressed displeasure over the spate of killings in the region, stating that government would not allow people to be taking the law into their hands and continue to kill innocent citizens.
At the meeting, which was a discussion between the aggrieved ethnic groups in an attempt to find lasting solutions to the security challenges in the region, governor El-Rufai warned that the recent attacks in Godogodo axis would no longer be condoned.
He directed all divisional Police officers and traditional rulers in the affected areas to fish out those involved in the killings within two weeks.
The governor further expressed concerns about the security situations, saying that Kaduna had experienced 12 ethnic and religious conflicts since 1980.
He explained that failure of the previous administrations to decisively tackle security problems when they occurred encouraged them to degenerate to what it was today.
“We have studied reports of all committees and commissions of inquiries set up from 1980 to the time we came into power.
“What we discovered is that negligence of previous government to implement recommendations encouraged the spate of insecurity to continue unchecked in the state.
“From that time to date, Kaduna has experienced 12 religious and ethnic conflicts. Those responsible for the crisis always use religious or ethnic differences to fan the ambers of these crises.
“There is no way we will brand some people in Nigeria as settlers who don’t have the rights to live in any part of the country. We are all Nigerians and God knows why he made all of us to be Nigerians.
“He is the one who created us to belong to different faith or religion. For me, the things that have brought these crises in Kaduna state is that those doing it hide under the guise of religion and ethnicity to cause these conflicts.
“But we know that illiteracy and poverty are the root cause of the insecurity we have been experiencing,” he observed.
Governor El-Rufai called on all aggrieved parties to forgive any grievance and always report to the authorities any wrong committed against them to allow the government use the law to bring about justice.
“Anyone that feels he has been grieved because his relations were killed or has lost anything, he should come out and complain and we will compensate him if that is what it will take but no one should resort to killing because of anything.
“We appeal to you to be patient and allow authorities to bring justice,” he explained.
While condemning actions of certain people in killing innocent citizens in reprisal attacks, the governor said the government would take actions to deal with those involved.
He noted, “We are trying our best and we want people to give us a chance to address these issues. Instead of taking the law into your hands just come and report to us who has grieved you and what is done to you and we will ensure you get justice.
“In Southern Kaduna, God has blessed us with a fertile land, abundant natural resources that are largely untapped because of insecurity and unrest.
“These are capable of bringing foreigners to come and invest in our land but this will not be possible. In my thinking, traditional and community leaders should be concerned about this situation more than anybody.
“There is no investor that will bring his money in an insecure environment. If you know those that have been wronged tell us and we will go and apologise to them.
“But if you know those killing innocent people, you must also inform us. We will not allow people to do whatever they want in Kaduna as though we don’t have leadership or law and order in the state.”
The Deputy Governor, Barnabas Yusuf Bala, said what was happening in Southern Kaduna was capable of scaring investors away thereby truncating the good plans of the government to develop the region and create job opportunities.
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