Unic Press UK: The Nigerian Senate will be investigating wanton destruction of lives and property in the southern part of Kaduna State, says the President of Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bukola Saraki.
The position of the President of Senate was disclosed in a message from Bamikole Omishore, who is the special assistant to the Senate President on new media.
The @NGRSenate will investigate #SouthernKadunaKillings.
"Once we resume, this issue will be addressed to get a clearer picture." @SPNigeria pic.twitter.com/8K6k1a1ZBb— The Senate President (@SPNigeria) January 3, 2017
The degree of destruction in the southern part of Kaduna State is mind-boggling given the revelation from the Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, viz.:
“Number of LGC’s attacked: 4. Number of Villages attacked: 53. Number of deaths: 808. Number of injured: 57. Number of houses, shops, churches & other properties destroyed: 1,422 houses, 16 Churches, 19 shops, 1 primary school, 5 cars. A conservative estimate of farmlands destroyed, food stuff burnt is estimated at 5.5 billion Naira.” (Catholic Diocese of Kafanchan, December 2016)
Many analysts have contended that the Kaduna State government has been giving tacit support to the Fulanis/herdsmen to execute a sort of ethnic cleansing, others believe the situation is patently genocidal.
In a treatise “El-Rufai’s Blunders And The Christmas Killings In Southern Kaduna”, which was published on the 26th December 2016, Moses Ochonu, a Professor of African History, said:
“The attack is part of a broader genocidal war against the people of Southern Kaduna state, a war that is in its 5th year and has killed thousands of people in their homes and farms and destroyed the livelihoods of tens of thousands more. As we speak an estimated 53 villages lay in ruins, some of them occupied by Fulani herdsmen and their cattle, a forceful annexation that recalls the similarly forceful displacement in Agatu. Let’s be clear: the crisis predates the administration of Governor Nasir el-Rufai, so he cannot be accused of causing it or of being behind it as some people are insinuating. However, his utterances and actions in the past and the present have exacerbated the problem and emboldened the attackers… To understand some of the Governor’s current failures in dealing with the killings, you have to understand his past utterances, his incendiary character, his insensitivity, and his inability to moderate his thinking and resultant public expressions, all of which offer clues about why he has no credibility or political capital to solve the problem and why he is widely perceived as part of the problem, not its solution. Let’s consider the governor’s many problems in this regard. El-Rufai is widely regarded as a Fulani supremacist, and with good reason. On July 15, 2012, he tweeted the following: “We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes.”
We will write this for all to read. Anyone, soldier or not that kills the Fulani takes a loan repayable one day no matter how long it takes.
— Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai (@elrufai) July 15, 2012
