The masses of troubled Southern Kaduna region in Kaduna will vote out President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election because of his insensitivity to the killings occurring in the area since 2011, Dr. John Danfulani, a university lecturer, said yesterday in Kaduna.
The masses of troubled Southern Kaduna region in Kaduna will vote out President Goodluck Jonathan in the 2015 election because of his insensitivity to the killings occurring in the area since 2011, Dr. John Danfulani, a university lecturer, said yesterday in Kaduna.
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Danfulani, who addressed a press conference under the banner of Concerned Realists of Southern Kaduna, said 614 people have been killed in 51 attacks since 2011.
“It is apparent that we have been targeted for persecution and extinction by powerful forces and that the Government under Ramalan Yero, Namadi Sambo and Goodluck Jonathan appears unconcerned and or helpless,” he said. “We cannot also be helpless and allow politicians take our existence for granted.
THEREFORE WE will mobilize our people to Vote against RAMALAN YERO, NAMADI SAMBO AND GOODLUCK JONATHAN in 2015 as a protest to their insensitivity to the killings in Southern Kaduna and failure to honour our dead who have been slaughtered under their stewardship.”
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The group accused President Jonathan of failing to condemn the recent killing of 119 people in the area by suspected herdsmen, saying Jonathan only sees Southern Kaduna as suppliers of votes and political eunuchs.
“Indeed the deliberate massacre which targets all living creatures and does not exempt infants, pregnant women, aged men and women, and even people living with disabilities with impunity has consumed hundreds of lives, wiped out several communities and is expanding with every attack,” Danfulani said
“For the avoidance of doubt, we are not speaking for the political class of Southern Kaduna or any elitist club but for the indigent, oppressed and the marginalized peoples of Southern Kaduna whose innocent blood has been spilt and is flowing over our empty farmlands that can no longer be cultivated because the farmers that till the soil are all dead.”
The Concerned Realists of Southern Kaduna said that a study they did following the 2011 presidential election crisis showed that there was a lull before there was a sudden eruption of consistent, organized, coordinated, well equipped attacks on carefully selected segments of the communities.
They further stated that so far, there have been 51attacks against the communities with the most recent one in the three villages of Ungwan Gata, Tekum and Me-sankwai in Kaura Local Government. In all the attacks, over 614 persons have been killed, over 1000 houses destroyed and over 1200 people seriously injured.
According to Danfulani, “Our concern is that over and over again, the Government both at the State and Federal levels have either appeared unconcerned or helpless. The primary responsibility of any Government as defined in CAP 2 of the 1999 Constitution makes it impossible for any Government to behave the way our Government has so far treated our situation. All we can deduce from the situation is outright neglect and sheer politicization of the attacks. To us, the killings at our very base of existence simply mean genocide, annihilation, ethnic/religious cleansing, attempted land grabbing and a deliberate program of extinction.”
Stressing that the killings started after the 2011 Presidential Election, he said that hundreds of the people have been maimed and killed, farmlands and harvests destroyed, whole families and communities displaced as erstwhile quiet villages are sacked and made refugees in their homelands as punishment for supporting President Jonathan in the 2011 poll, but that all the governments have shown no sympathy or concern over the gruesome crimes.
“There has not been even a whimper of sympathy from the Presidency; the Vice President has never visited or sent representation to any of the victims in the over 51 times that we have been attacked. Even when he visits Kaduna, he only visits Zaria and remains in Kaduna, receiving big crowds from the North Western States and deliberately turns a blind eye to the single political region that gave him and President Jonathan the highest number of votes in the 2011 election. This is betrayal of trust. He also attends only funerals in Southern Kaduna (funerals of late Governor Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa and late Senator Isaiah Balat).”
He rejected the suggestion that his people are sacrificial lambs who are only for supplying votes, saying it is proof that their rights as Nigerians in need of state protection from all threats to life are no priority to the Government of the day. In that connection, he noted that food security is now a serious issue, arising from the abandoned farm lands and the deliberate destruction of crops and harvested food by the attackers.
The Concerned Realists of Southern Kaduna also had a message for elected representatives of Southern Kaduna origin, warning them that the resolution about future voting of their people is just the beginning.
“We would xray everyone starting from the Senator to the Local Government Chairmen and Councilors. No one should attempt to ask for Votes if he/she cannot present our challenges to the Government he belongs to. We would join hands with the youths and elders of good repute to renew and strengthen our commitment and faith in freeing our communities from extinction.”
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