For the people of Kaninkon Kingdom in Southern Kaduna, this was a bleak
Christmas. On Christmas Eve and on Christmas day armed Fulani herdsmen
attacked and destroyed Goska village, killing, maiming, and burning.
This attack occurred in spite of the area having been put under a
24-hour curfew by the state government, an indication of the brazenness
and sense of impunity on the part of the well-armed attackers
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. An ill-tempered man given to incendiary, inciting, and
divisive outbursts, El-Rufai has made several egregious errors in
dealing with the crisis. Some of these errors are errors of approach,
thinking, and mentality. The errors have inspired actions that have
wittingly or unwittingly transformed what was a low-level series of
massacres into a full-blown genocide.
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 12, 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.” The governor’s
response to the killings in Southern Kaduna has been eerily consistent
with this mindset. In a recent chat with newsmen in Kaduna, the governor
made three statements that substantiate this Fulani supremacist
statement from four years ago.
First, he said when he became governor, he traced the attackers to
Cameroon, Chad, and Niger and sent a message to them that one of their
own, a Fulani like them, was now governor. This statement displays a
spectacularly parochial mentality. A governor of a Nigerian state was
basically making appeals based on ethnic kinship and brotherhood to a
group of foreign killers of people in his own Nigerian state! In other
words, he was appeasing his murderous foreign kinsmen at the expense of
indigenes of his state who are not his ethnic kinsmen but whose safety
and interests he swore to defend. The governor shocking statement
indicates that ethnic solidarity trumped his constitutional obligations
to protect Southern Kaduna citizens from the external threats of foreign
Fulani herdsmen.
Second, the governor told the journalists that the crisis began in
the aftermath of the 2011 presidential elections when foreign Fulani
herdsmen passing through Southern Kaduna were attacked with some of them
killed and their cattle stolen. The governor claimed that the ongoing
genocidal killings are revenge for the 2011 attacks.
It was irresponsible for the governor to make this statement without
providing a shred of evidence other than that this is what the foreign
Fulani attackers told his emissaries who traced them to various
neighboring countries. What the governor was doing was legitimizing the
herdsmen’s genocidal campaign by giving it the cover of revenge. He was
lending gubernatorial authority and credibility to the claims of foreign
invaders that they are revenging the killing of their kinsmen on
Nigerian soil! Shocking as it is, however, the governor’s current
explanation is consistent with the tweet I quoted because he is still
espousing and promoting what he, as a Fulani man, believes to be the
Fulani ethos of revenge. El-Rufai was also doing classic victim blaming,
blaming the victims for provoking the killers and bringing calamity
upon themselves.
Then, of course, there is the fact that even if the claim of revenge
were legitimate, one would be compelled to ask how much Southern Kaduna
blood would need to be spilled to pay for the herdsmen and cattle
allegedly killed in 2011. How long is this Fulani revenge spree supposed
to last? Ten years? Twenty? Is this Fulani blood debt that El-Rufai
speaks of eternal? This genocide has been going on for five years
already. By the way, who or what gave foreigners the permission to
freely violate Nigeria’s borders and penetrate deep into the Nigerian
hinterland with their cattle and destroy farmlands in the process?
Should any claim by people who have illegally breached our borders and
destroyed the farmlands of Nigerian citizens be taken seriously let
alone privileged above the suffering of citizens?
Third, El-Rufai stated that he had paid off the attackers as a way to
stop them from continuing the killings. This is, of course, an
explosive confession. He admitted to paying foreigners who illegally
breached Nigeria’s borders to attack citizens of his state. This begs
the question of why, in spite of the payments, the attacks have
continued and have become more intense. It also advertises the
governor’s poor judgment. He rewarded those who confessed to killing
citizens of his state, instead of working with the federal government to
hold them accountable or to stop them from further breaching our
borders to kill citizens.
It is safe to say the governor’s poor judgment is anchored on ethnic
solidarity with the foreign killers. Furthermore, to the extent that
El-Rufai used state funds to pay the so-called compensation to the
foreign killer herdsmen, the beleaguered people of Southern Kaduna,
partakers in the state’s patrimony, were in fact being forced to pay
their killers to stop killing them! It is not out of place to speculate
that the killers may have used the governor’s payments to acquire more
sophisticated weapons, which may explain why the scope, intensity, and
sophistication of the killings have increased in recent months.
These confessed blunders are consistent with the governor’s character
and past utterances. In an interview before he became governor,
el-Rufai was asked about the killing of some Southern Nigerian youth
corpers in the 2011 post-election violence in Kaduna. He objected
vehemently to the premise of the question. He wondered why the press was
obsessed with a few youth corp members who were killed by hoodlums and
asked why there was no concern for “our people” who were killed in
Southern Kaduna. By “our people” he meant Hausa-Fulani people. This
interview was quite revealing, for it showed that he thinks of
victimhood in strictly ethno-religious terms.
Today, as he gropes confusingly to get a handle on the killings, the
governor is blaming nameless people he accuses of trying to “divide the
people” along religious and ethnic lines. Such rhetoric from him is
laughably hypocritical, for no one has contributed to the atmosphere of
ethno-religious division in Kaduna State than El-Rufai. In his quest for
power, he pandered shamelessly to ethno-religious loyalties, much to
the consternation of those who regarded him as being above such
sentiments. Having seemingly written off Southern Kaduna, a PDP
stronghold, el-Rufai engaged in the most blatantly ethno-religiously
divisive campaign in the state’s history, projecting himself as a
champion of Fulani and Hausa-Fulani interest. He became a proud
provincial man as his controversial tweets indicate, even though those
who know him personally say the man is urbane and cosmopolitan.
El-Rufai is now captive to his own political posturing and long-held
supremacist tendencies. His approach to the killings has continued to
bear out his tendency for stoking unnecessary drama, for ethno-religious
insensitivity, and for personalizing public issues. He sees the
Southern Kaduna people as blame-worthy and the Fulani herdsmen killers
as deserving of appeasement. A few weeks ago, as though to further
humiliate the people of Southern Kaduna in their distress, the governor
fancifully launched what he called “apology billboards.” The billboards
were erected across the local governments of Southern Kaduna. In other
words, El-Rufai’s solution to the killings is to force the people of
Southern Kaduna, the victims, to apologize to their killers. It was a
humiliating political subjugation of a people already under genocidal
siege. The Southern Kaduna people were paying for billboards that
apologized to their killers instead of the other way round. And this was
haughtily done without consulting with the Southern Kaduna people.
As the governor blames others, including Niger Delta militants (!),
he has not stopped to acknowledge that his past and present utterances
and gestures have created an atmosphere of distrust between him and the
people of Southern Kaduna and between the ethnic and religious groups of
the state. He needs to look inward and take responsibility for stoking
ethno-religious distrust and for emboldening the killers or at least
giving them the impression that a sympathetic member of their
ethno-religious group is in power, and that this kinsman is willing to
legitimize their murderous cause and even pay them appeasement money. No
wonder the people of Southern Kaduna attacked him on his visit there
last week. They were tired of the governor’s condescending attitude, his
empty preachments, and his efforts to humiliate them while rewarding
their tormentors.
Helpless in the face of his inability to contain the rising current
of ethno-religious division in the state, the governor has belatedly run
to President Buhari to deploy more troops to Southern Kaduna
communities. This is the same army, by the way, that on July 20 2014,
El-Rufai tweeted the following about: “Genocidal Jonathanian army kills
once again.” On that occasion, El-Rufai was condemning the killing of
some Shiite members by soldiers. He was obviously pandering and
opportunistically exploiting the Shiite’s sectarian angst because today
he is the biggest persecutor of the Shiite in Nigeria. Moreover, he has
partnered with the same army he described as genocidal to wage his war
against the Shiite minority.
The proverbial chickens are coming home to roost for El-Rufai. His
past utterances, his prior political posturing, his divisive,
incendiary, and insensitive ethno-religious pandering and comments are
coming back to haunt him. He has no one but himself to blame. He has
little sympathy, having arrogantly and selfishly alienated foes and
friends alike.
El-Rufai’s current travail offers a poignant lesson, which is that
those seeking political positions should moderate their supremacist
ideologies, temper their arrogance, and stop pandering to or riding the
wave of popular but fleeting primordial anger.
Wednesday, 4 January 2017
SOUTHERN KADUNA KILLINGS : WHO IS SAYING THE TRUTH HERE..
The Federal Government, yesterday, launched a bitter but indirect rebuke on the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, as well as the Catholic Church over comments by both bodies regarding the wave of ethno-religious crisis in the Southern part of Kaduna State. In a strongly-worded statement, the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, said: “True religious leaders do not fan the embers of hate, but ensure that communities live in peace and harmony.”
Meanwhile, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has said that the senate would commence investigation into the latest killings in southern Kaduna State. But CAN, Kaduna State branch, yesterday, reacted angrily to the suggestion by Danbazau that Christian leaders in Kaduna State were fanning the embers of hate and religious intolerance by insisting that the killings going on in Southern Kaduna was religious in nature. Kaduna CAN said to the Minister: “Shut up if you have nothing to say.” Similarly, Rev. Musa Asake, the General Secretary of National CAN, in a telephone interview, said it would be an unfortunate thing for a Minister like Dambazau to say that the Christian leadership in the country was fanning the embers of hatred. He said CAN did not exaggerate the killings as being accused. “We have to say things (the way they are) when they are not going well. We are not fanning embers of hate as the minister suggested. How can somebody be talking like that? We do not exaggerate or say negative things like some people.” Dambazau in a statement by his Press Secretary, Ehisienmen Osaigbovo, yesterday, was reacting to statements credited to the national leadership of CAN and the Catholic Church in Southern Kaduna, accusing Islamist herdsmen of trying to wipe out the Christian-dominated and largely agrarian communities in the area. The Dambazau statement The statement said: “The Minister of the Interior, Lt Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd), has called on all well-meaning Nigerians not to allow themselves to be dragged into religious conflicts. He observed that this has become necessary following insinuations that the criminal violence in Southern Kaduna has some religious interpretation. “He said there are people who are always looking for ways to further create division along religious or ethnic fault lines for their selfish interest, with the aim of creating instability in our internal security. Accordingly, the Minister posited that true religious leaders do not fan the embers of hate, but ensure that communities live in peace and harmony. In this connection, he maintained that economic growth and development will remain a mirage for Nigeria, with over 500 ethnic groups and multiple religions, unless we resolve to live amicably as a people with common destiny.
“Dambazau said criminals, who perpetrate violence against innocent, law-abiding citizens, do not discriminate along religious and ethnic lines, citing examples of how communities in Zamfara, Katsina, Taraba, Enugu, Lagos and Niger were victimized by those violent criminals. He noted that a criminal should be treated as such, whether he is involved in armed robbery, drug trafficking, homicide or cattle rustling, and that people should avoid honouring criminals with religious or ethnic attachment. “He advised opinion and religious leaders to refrain from giving the crisis between herdsmen and sedentary farmers in Southern Kaduna a religious connotation, rather attention should be focused on the real enemies of our Society, who illegally acquire weapons to terrorize Christian and Muslim communities alike.” Kaduna CAN reacts Reacting to Dambazau’s comment, Secretary of CAN, Kaduna State Chapter, Rev. Sunday Ibrahim, said it was better that Danbazau kept quiet since he appeared not to be interested in solving the problem, insisting that the violence was religious in nature. He said: “The statement attributed to Danbazau came to us with the least of surprise because of his antecedence on matters like this. If Danbazau has no interest in solving our security problems, he should shut up, just like President Muhammadu Buhari has kept mute also. “Why should Danbazzau not wait for the much talked about investigation into the massacre and bring out a conclusion that may rubbish our claim? What do you call continuous killings and destruction of Christian communities with gunmen chanting Islamic slogans all the time? In areas where there are Muslims, such as Godogodo, Akwa, Golkofa, Gada Biyu, in Jema’a LGA, the homes of Muslims and the Muslim residents there were not touched. But not a Christian home or church is standing in the other areas. What do you call that? “In Chaiwai, Chiefdom, Kauru, LGA, where five villages were sacked and 45 people killed in November, the survivors said the gunmen were chanting Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. They shot and killed pigs in the villages, also stole goats and grains and burnt the churches and houses there. “We have visited some of these places and the evidence is on ground. ECWA Church addressed a press conference in Kaduna, last October or was it November, and said that all their churches in affected towns and villages had been burnt. “The Catholic Church knows its casualties, so do Anglican, Baptist Church and the rest. The statement of Danbazzau is either to cover his shame for his refusal to stop Jihadist herdsmen or he is out to intimidate CAN not to reveal to the world the atrocity that herdsmen are doing at cleansing Christian communities in Southern Kaduna “As the Minister of Interior, has he ever taken a trip to Southern Kaduna to see things for himself? The first time he would be making a statement is to cast Christian leaders in bad light instead of saying comforting words to us. Violence in Southern Kaduna religious— CAN “CAN in Kaduna insists that the violence in Southern Kaduna is religious. Islamists want to destroy Christianity in Southern Kaduna and occupy the land. And right now, they are occupying 16 villages in Southern Kaduna with their cattle and families after terrorising out the Christian natives. Let him come and see with his own eyes if CAN is lying. “We are still waiting for the same reaction of the Federal Government in Zamfara and Katsina just a day or two after gunmen killed several people there. We are happy they got the killers and have secured these states. “Since April, last year, we have been shouting hoarse and pleading. All we get from the Inspector General of Police and now the Minister of Interior is that we have no right to describe the killings in its true form, while the two just sit and watch on.” Senate to investigate S’ Kaduna killings, says Saraki Meanwhile, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has said that the senate would commence investigation into the latest killings in southern Kaduna State. Saraki made the announcement in a statement by his Special Assistant on New Media, Mr Bamikole Omishore, in Abuja, yesterday. According to Saraki, the Senate will on resumption from recess on January 10, make the issue a priority. Omishore said the senate president made the disclosure while responding to a tweet posted by one Chimeze Ukoha on the Kaduna killings. The statement quoted Ukoha as saying that “About 800 Christians were massacred in Southern Kaduna and nobody is talking about that, very bad.” It quotes Saraki as responding that “once the senate resumes, this issue will be addressed to get a clearer picture of what the real situation is and find a lasting solution. “Every Nigerian life matters and the senate will work to ensure that rule of law is always upheld as prescribed by the Nigerian Constitution.” The statement explained that Saraki was already in touch with senators from Kaduna State and that he was constantly getting updates on developments. Army approves Brigade Command in troubled area Meanwhile, worried by the recurring crisis in the southern part of Kaduna State, especially the ongoing crisis where several lives have been lost and property worth millions of naira destroyed, the authorities of the Nigerian Army have approved the establishment of a brigade command in the troubled area. Also, the Army authorities have directed that Camp Zero, headquarters of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists which recently fell to its gallant troops be used as the Nigerian Army Small Arms Competition in 2017. The development came as the Army said it has not only deployed troops to Southern Kaduna but has also taken full control of the crisis zone. Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Usman, who disclosed this yesterday, at a media briefing, in Abuja, assured that full normalcy would soon be restored. “I want to inform you that the Nigerian Army is fully deployed to the southern part of Kaduna State with directive to restore law and order and we might go beyond that. “The Nigerian Army is fully on ground in the southern part of Kaduna State. It is our hope and prayer that the problem that requires this will be nipped in the bud. “The Nigerian Army has made provision for military establishment in that part and any moment from now, we are going to have it.” Speaking on the Sambisa Forest proposed arms training, he said: “The Chief of Army Staff has directed that next Nigerian Army Small Arms Competition, NASAC 2017, would be conducted at Sambisa Forest. Already, efforts are on by the Nigerian Army engineers to open more routes and construct bridges into the once Boko Haram haven to facilitate easy access to the forest.” Usman said the briefing was part of the Nigerian Army “ interaction to review our last year training and operational activities which led to the final fall of Boko Haram terrorists headquarters in Camp Zairo and subsequent subsequent presidential commendation on achieving that noble feat.” The Army spokesman, who recalled that the Nigerian Army last year conducted many training activities at all levels in addition to other training exercise conducted by the various Nigerian Army training institutions across the country, said the development led to its successes in cattle rustling, recovery of arms and ammunition as well as arrest of perpetrators of violence in various parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has said that the senate would commence investigation into the latest killings in southern Kaduna State. But CAN, Kaduna State branch, yesterday, reacted angrily to the suggestion by Danbazau that Christian leaders in Kaduna State were fanning the embers of hate and religious intolerance by insisting that the killings going on in Southern Kaduna was religious in nature. Kaduna CAN said to the Minister: “Shut up if you have nothing to say.” Similarly, Rev. Musa Asake, the General Secretary of National CAN, in a telephone interview, said it would be an unfortunate thing for a Minister like Dambazau to say that the Christian leadership in the country was fanning the embers of hatred. He said CAN did not exaggerate the killings as being accused. “We have to say things (the way they are) when they are not going well. We are not fanning embers of hate as the minister suggested. How can somebody be talking like that? We do not exaggerate or say negative things like some people.” Dambazau in a statement by his Press Secretary, Ehisienmen Osaigbovo, yesterday, was reacting to statements credited to the national leadership of CAN and the Catholic Church in Southern Kaduna, accusing Islamist herdsmen of trying to wipe out the Christian-dominated and largely agrarian communities in the area. The Dambazau statement The statement said: “The Minister of the Interior, Lt Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau (retd), has called on all well-meaning Nigerians not to allow themselves to be dragged into religious conflicts. He observed that this has become necessary following insinuations that the criminal violence in Southern Kaduna has some religious interpretation. “He said there are people who are always looking for ways to further create division along religious or ethnic fault lines for their selfish interest, with the aim of creating instability in our internal security. Accordingly, the Minister posited that true religious leaders do not fan the embers of hate, but ensure that communities live in peace and harmony. In this connection, he maintained that economic growth and development will remain a mirage for Nigeria, with over 500 ethnic groups and multiple religions, unless we resolve to live amicably as a people with common destiny.
“Dambazau said criminals, who perpetrate violence against innocent, law-abiding citizens, do not discriminate along religious and ethnic lines, citing examples of how communities in Zamfara, Katsina, Taraba, Enugu, Lagos and Niger were victimized by those violent criminals. He noted that a criminal should be treated as such, whether he is involved in armed robbery, drug trafficking, homicide or cattle rustling, and that people should avoid honouring criminals with religious or ethnic attachment. “He advised opinion and religious leaders to refrain from giving the crisis between herdsmen and sedentary farmers in Southern Kaduna a religious connotation, rather attention should be focused on the real enemies of our Society, who illegally acquire weapons to terrorize Christian and Muslim communities alike.” Kaduna CAN reacts Reacting to Dambazau’s comment, Secretary of CAN, Kaduna State Chapter, Rev. Sunday Ibrahim, said it was better that Danbazau kept quiet since he appeared not to be interested in solving the problem, insisting that the violence was religious in nature. He said: “The statement attributed to Danbazau came to us with the least of surprise because of his antecedence on matters like this. If Danbazau has no interest in solving our security problems, he should shut up, just like President Muhammadu Buhari has kept mute also. “Why should Danbazzau not wait for the much talked about investigation into the massacre and bring out a conclusion that may rubbish our claim? What do you call continuous killings and destruction of Christian communities with gunmen chanting Islamic slogans all the time? In areas where there are Muslims, such as Godogodo, Akwa, Golkofa, Gada Biyu, in Jema’a LGA, the homes of Muslims and the Muslim residents there were not touched. But not a Christian home or church is standing in the other areas. What do you call that? “In Chaiwai, Chiefdom, Kauru, LGA, where five villages were sacked and 45 people killed in November, the survivors said the gunmen were chanting Allahu Akbar Allahu Akbar. They shot and killed pigs in the villages, also stole goats and grains and burnt the churches and houses there. “We have visited some of these places and the evidence is on ground. ECWA Church addressed a press conference in Kaduna, last October or was it November, and said that all their churches in affected towns and villages had been burnt. “The Catholic Church knows its casualties, so do Anglican, Baptist Church and the rest. The statement of Danbazzau is either to cover his shame for his refusal to stop Jihadist herdsmen or he is out to intimidate CAN not to reveal to the world the atrocity that herdsmen are doing at cleansing Christian communities in Southern Kaduna “As the Minister of Interior, has he ever taken a trip to Southern Kaduna to see things for himself? The first time he would be making a statement is to cast Christian leaders in bad light instead of saying comforting words to us. Violence in Southern Kaduna religious— CAN “CAN in Kaduna insists that the violence in Southern Kaduna is religious. Islamists want to destroy Christianity in Southern Kaduna and occupy the land. And right now, they are occupying 16 villages in Southern Kaduna with their cattle and families after terrorising out the Christian natives. Let him come and see with his own eyes if CAN is lying. “We are still waiting for the same reaction of the Federal Government in Zamfara and Katsina just a day or two after gunmen killed several people there. We are happy they got the killers and have secured these states. “Since April, last year, we have been shouting hoarse and pleading. All we get from the Inspector General of Police and now the Minister of Interior is that we have no right to describe the killings in its true form, while the two just sit and watch on.” Senate to investigate S’ Kaduna killings, says Saraki Meanwhile, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has said that the senate would commence investigation into the latest killings in southern Kaduna State. Saraki made the announcement in a statement by his Special Assistant on New Media, Mr Bamikole Omishore, in Abuja, yesterday. According to Saraki, the Senate will on resumption from recess on January 10, make the issue a priority. Omishore said the senate president made the disclosure while responding to a tweet posted by one Chimeze Ukoha on the Kaduna killings. The statement quoted Ukoha as saying that “About 800 Christians were massacred in Southern Kaduna and nobody is talking about that, very bad.” It quotes Saraki as responding that “once the senate resumes, this issue will be addressed to get a clearer picture of what the real situation is and find a lasting solution. “Every Nigerian life matters and the senate will work to ensure that rule of law is always upheld as prescribed by the Nigerian Constitution.” The statement explained that Saraki was already in touch with senators from Kaduna State and that he was constantly getting updates on developments. Army approves Brigade Command in troubled area Meanwhile, worried by the recurring crisis in the southern part of Kaduna State, especially the ongoing crisis where several lives have been lost and property worth millions of naira destroyed, the authorities of the Nigerian Army have approved the establishment of a brigade command in the troubled area. Also, the Army authorities have directed that Camp Zero, headquarters of the dreaded Boko Haram terrorists which recently fell to its gallant troops be used as the Nigerian Army Small Arms Competition in 2017. The development came as the Army said it has not only deployed troops to Southern Kaduna but has also taken full control of the crisis zone. Director of Army Public Relations, Brigadier General Sani Usman, who disclosed this yesterday, at a media briefing, in Abuja, assured that full normalcy would soon be restored. “I want to inform you that the Nigerian Army is fully deployed to the southern part of Kaduna State with directive to restore law and order and we might go beyond that. “The Nigerian Army is fully on ground in the southern part of Kaduna State. It is our hope and prayer that the problem that requires this will be nipped in the bud. “The Nigerian Army has made provision for military establishment in that part and any moment from now, we are going to have it.” Speaking on the Sambisa Forest proposed arms training, he said: “The Chief of Army Staff has directed that next Nigerian Army Small Arms Competition, NASAC 2017, would be conducted at Sambisa Forest. Already, efforts are on by the Nigerian Army engineers to open more routes and construct bridges into the once Boko Haram haven to facilitate easy access to the forest.” Usman said the briefing was part of the Nigerian Army “ interaction to review our last year training and operational activities which led to the final fall of Boko Haram terrorists headquarters in Camp Zairo and subsequent subsequent presidential commendation on achieving that noble feat.” The Army spokesman, who recalled that the Nigerian Army last year conducted many training activities at all levels in addition to other training exercise conducted by the various Nigerian Army training institutions across the country, said the development led to its successes in cattle rustling, recovery of arms and ammunition as well as arrest of perpetrators of violence in various parts of the country.
By Luka Binniyat,
Omeiza Ajayi, Joseph Erunke, Caleb Ayansina
The Federal Government, yesterday, launched a bitter but indirect rebuke
on the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, as well as the Catholic
Church over comments by both bodies regarding the wave of
ethno-religious crisis in the Southern part of Kaduna State.
In a strongly-worded statement, the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman
Dambazau, said: “True religious leaders do not fan the embers of hate,
but ensure that communities live in peace and harmony.”
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/southern-kaduna-killings-fg-can-catholic-church-war-words/
Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/southern-kaduna-killings-fg-can-catholic-church-war-words/
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