Kaduna killings: Zamani Lekwot querries state Govt’s sincerity

Retired Major General Zamani  Lekwot has faulted Kaduna state Governor, Nasir El-Rufai over continuous killings in Southern Kaduna. The former military officer asserted that something is strange with the continuous killings, adding that the killings are not revenge based as stated. Lekwot who is the founder of Southern Kaduna Elders Forum said there is ‘more than meets the eye’ in the killings going on in the state because herders and the villagers have been living peacefully together for a long time, only for things to change suddenly. 

“It is very disappointing because the villagers and the herders have lived together in a symbiotic way for many decades. All of a sudden, things changed and the government themselves confessed that they were armed foreign invaders. In addition to the attack on local communities; burning their houses and killing many, some of them also rustled the local herders’ cattle,” he said. 

Going further, Lekwot argued that since the state government said it has identified the problem, then it should not be difficult to fix it, Vanguard reports. “So, since the government has identified the problem, they should take the next step forward to arrest the situation. As you know, identification of a problem is 50 percent solution. 
So, we are hoping that by sending more troops and security to the ground, something more drastic will be done,” he added. 

Was the President right when he suggested they were revenge killings? Lekwot also subtly disagree with President. Muhammadu Buhari’s claim that the killings are motivated by revenge. He said: “Revenge killings? How? The killings have been perpetrated by these bandits who are foreign to the ground. Revenge killings on that scale? Many houses burnt, innocent women, children, aged, killed? “The survivors are languishing in IDPs, suffering there without government support. Well, I believe some people are hiding the truth,” he said. 
Recall that it had been reported that following the incessant killings in Southern Kaduna some clerics under the aegis of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, have expressed sadness over the loss of lives and property in the area. 

The clerics noted that the killings have been persistent because the perpetrators had not been brought to justice. The clerics advised Catholics across the country to pray for an end to the killings. In a statement in Abuja by their president, Most Rev. Augustine Akubeze, the conference warned against politicising the killings. “We, the members of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, have been following the recent events in Nigeria closely. We continue to hear of increasing insecurity and unabated acts of terrorism in northern Nigeria. 
“We are all tired of this situation. We do not want any politician to politicise the killing of Nigerians. There should be one response from everyone, and that is, the killings must stop. 

“The perpetrators of the killings must be brought to justice. Where there is no justice or justice is not seen to be done, there cannot be peace. Where there is no peace, there cannot be development. Any government, state or federal, that wants peace must work for justice for everyone.
“There will never be sustained development built upon the bloodshed of innocent people brutally murdered by religious fundamentalists without any recourse to justice for the victims” it stated.