Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna last night ignored families of those who died in yesterday’s killings in Zangon Kataf local government area. SaharaReporters reported that Fulani herdsmen killed at least five members of the community in another episode of communal violence.
Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna last night ignored families of those who died in yesterday’s killings in Zangon Kataf local government area. SaharaReporters reported that Fulani herdsmen killed at least five members of the community in another episode of communal violence.
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Our correspondent learnt that the bereaved families waited in vain for hours to see the governor, but he never turned up to personally assess their condition or to offer his condolences. Instead, Mr. Yero took off to Abuja, the country’s capital.
Several of the bereaved told a correspondent of SaharaReporters that neither the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) nor the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency had provided them with a single relief material.
A security source said the governor’s trip to Abuja was “for an emergency state function,” but failed to disclose the specific nature of the emergency. Other sources in Kaduna disclosed that Mr. Yero was advised on security grounds to stay away from the besieged community considering the heightened tension. One of those sources said the governor could visit the area on Monday or as soon as the security situation improves.
But numerous people in the community said they were dissatisfied with the governor’s absence, accusing him of betraying the duty of a leader. In a telephone interview, one of the critics, Bege Chechet, told SaharaReporters that the governor’s decision not to pay a reassuring visit to the area was an act of insensitivity and showed the usual “lack of pity in the hearts of leaders.” He added: “I came in from Jos this morning, and we were told that the governor would come; he never showed up. It was the police commissioner who came as well as other people.” He lamented that there had been “no emergency relief materials for our people. Just nothing.”
Mr. Chechet remarked that if Mr. Yero “values us as his people and citizenry, he would have been here and not to find cover and leave for Abuja, as we were told.” He added: “Even if [the governor] comes here tomorrow, there is no sense. When [a similar thing] happened in Birnin Gwari, he was there immediately. So, this is discrimination.”
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