End Southern Kaduna Killings Now, SMBLF Tells Buhari

More reactions have continued to pour in over the incessant killings in Southern Kaduna as the cries go louder for an end to the hideous act by unknown criminals.

In a statement on Sunday, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum, SMBLF, expressed outrage over the hideous acts which, according to them, as claimed the life of 63 people, urging President Muhammadu Buhari to step in and bring the perpetrators of the act to face the law.

According to the statement signed by Yinka Odumakin (South West), Chief Guy Ikokwu (South East), Senator Bassey Henshaw (South-South) and Dr Isuwa Dogo (Middle Belt), the leaders called on the presidency against making statements seeming to justify the killings.

“The Southern and Middle Belt Forum (SMBLF) is outraged by the latest wave of killings in Southern Kaduna in which SOKAPU has claimed the death of 63 people,” said the group.

“It is quite worrisome that the orgy of killings has continued despite the curfew imposed by the state government.

“In the past weeks, there have been reports of killings, especially in the southern part of Kaduna State with the most recent massacres at Kukum Daji and Gora Gan put at 33 deaths, aside from the scores who are in hospitals receiving treatment from various degrees of gunshots.

“However, instead of the Buhari-led Federal Government of Nigeria stepping in to find a lasting solution amid tardiness by the state government, it is unfortunate that it has resorted to provocative statements.

 “One of such is the annoying claims credited to the Senior Special Assistant (Media & Publicity) to the President of Nigeria, Malam Garba Shehu, on July 21, 2020, that ‘the problem in Southern Kaduna is an evil combination of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds.’

 “As if the above confusion is not enough, Shehu Garba further misinformed the Nigerian and the international community that ‘Southern Kaduna enjoys comprehensive security deployments, including the Army, Special Forces of both the Army and the Air Force, surveillance aircraft by the Air Force and mobile police units that are on the ground on a 24-hour basis to forestall criminality and keep the peace.

“These are not responsible statements from any government amid body bags daily being counted by the people of Southern Kaduna in the hands of alleged Fulani marauders.

“We, therefore, call on the Buhari government to immediately stop the killings, bring the perpetrators to book and stop making statements seeming to justify the killings and deceive the world about the situation in the area. “Only bloody-minded people will refuse to heed this advice now.”

Recall Shehu Sani, former Senator representing Kaduna Central, who recently argued that the killings are acts of terrorism and not vengeance as described by the Presidency, said the perpetrators’ continuous violence and bloodshed has turned southern Kaduna to a mortuary and a graveyard.

“The blood of the innocent is being spilled in the most unimaginably cruel and unspeakably evil manner and with impunity,” said Sani.

“In southern Kaduna, the North has lost its conscience and the nation has lost its will and spirit. Terrorists have turned southern Kaduna to a mortuary and a graveyard.

“The Federal and state governments must live up to their moral and constitutional duties and responsibilities by ending the slaughter and the carnage now.”