The Nigerian Senate, on Tuesday, April 11, 2017 rejected an interim report, submitted by an ad hoc committee on farmers-herders clash Southern Kaduna and in other parts of the country, Daily Sun reports.
The committee is headed by Senator Kabiru Gaya from Kano State. Gaya, had while reading the report of the committee, called on the Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State to publish previous white paper reports on Southern Kaduna crisis.
He had also alleged that 70 per cent of police officers posted to Southern Kaduna, are indigenes of the place. He criticized the practice in the report and called on the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to correct the imbalance.
His submissions were stoutly rejected by lawmakers. Speaking on the issue, the deputy president of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, urged his colleagues to reject the report and insist that the committee is mandated to go back and do a thorough job.
Ekweremadu was supported by Senator Barnabas Gemade who also faulted the interim report. Aligning with the position of lawmakers, President of the Senate, Senator Bukola Saraki, who presided over the day’s legislative business, ruled that the committee should do a thorough job and report back within four weeks.
Southern Kaduna, a predominantly Christian area of the Northern state of Kaduna in Nigeria, has come under heavy and systematic ethnic and religious cleansing.
Terrorists operating under the umbrellas of the Islamist Fulani Herdsmen Militia, the 4th most deadly terrorist group in the world has been attacking communities in Southern Kaduna, killing, and maiming Christians and burning homes and churches.
Governor Nasir El Rufai of Kaduna State has publicly admitted that his government has found the members of the Fulani militia perpetuating the killing in Southern Kaduna and he has paid them a “compensation” for them to stop the killings. The governor revealed that the militia is made up of Fulani nomads from neighboring Cameroon, Mali, Niger and other countries.
The victims of these murders are Christians and their attackers are on an ethnic and religious cleaning mission, according to the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN.
While Christians leaders have called on communities under attack to defend themselves against their attackers, Muslim clerics in Kaduna have called for the arrest of Christian religious and political leaders from Kaduna and other parts of the country who have called on Christians to defend themselves against their attackers.
These exchanges have led to an intense political environment.
