About 37 Attacks, 4,000 Died:Anger In Southern Kaduna Over ‘Ceasefire’ With Fulani

There was palpable anger in southern Kaduna after a group led by the President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Dr. Ephraim Goje, and another, led by Alh. Ahmadu Suleiman, Chairman of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State chapter, agreed to a ‘ceasefire’ between the people of southern Kaduna and Fulani herdsmen residents.

The ‘deal’ was brokered by Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP), Michael Zuokumor, the Chairman, Peace and Security Committee raised by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), in Kaduna on Tuesday.

Anger in southern Kaduna over ‘ceasefire’ with Fulani,killed-people- by nigeriam military

This came just as southern Kaduna people said they had compiled attacks on their villages by herdsmen for the International Criminal Court (ICC) attention while the Fulani in the area said they had also been targets of violence by southern Kaduna farmers.

“The main characteristic of the on-going assaults on our communities is that they are carefully planned, organised and executed with heartless viciousness and on incremental basis. Between 1981 and 2010, there were just 16 incidences of such attacks. However, between 2011 and 2014, over a period of four years, 37 such attacks have been launched against our hospitable, accommodating, peaceful and law abiding communities by Fulani herdsmen. These planned, systematic and coordinated attacks have claimed the lives of over 4,000 innocent southern Kaduna people”, a coalition of seven groups representing southern Kaduna, led by a former Kaduna State Commissioner of Justice, Zakari Sokfa, said in Kaduna on Wednesday, in their apparent rejection of the `ceasefire’.

Three Moroa communities in Bondong District, Kaura Local Government Area (LGA) of Kaduna State were attacked by what the villagers said were Fulani gunmen. Not less that 149 lives were lost and estimated 300 homes burnt, according to the villagers.

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