The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, SOKAPU, has frowned at the rising trend of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in the area.
The group also frowned at the government’s lackadaisical approach towards the incessant killings that have left many communities vulnerable and thousands of people killed in the most gruesome manner.
The President of SOKAPU, Jonathan Asake and members of the group visited the Mercy IDP camp in Zonkwa, Zangon Kataf local government area of Kaduna State where about 1,154 people are taking refuge and donated relief materials to them.
Asake lamented that the area has witnessed all sorts of atrocities in the hands of the militias ranging from invasions, maiming, burning down of houses and several lives killed in cold blood.
According to him, the life of an ordinary Southern Kaduna person matters and urged the Nasir El-Rufai-led government and the Federal Governments to deploy its might to protect lives and properties in the area.
“We said it before, and we’re reiterating it again that genocide and ethnic cleansing is taking place in the Southern Kaduna, and we’re calling on the International Community to come to the rescue of our people.
“It was Jema’a, Kaura, Chikun, now Kajuru and now in Zango Kataf. The IDP presently in Zonkwa is overwhelmed, about 21 Villages have been abandoned including farmlands which depict danger on our people,” Asake explained.
The National President added that in spite of the over one-month 24-hour curfew imposed on the entire local government area, the killer herdsmen have continued to move without hindrance.
He called on the state government to be true to her words to be fair to all by protecting the lives and properties of the citizenry and also ensure that normalcy is restored and facilitate the safe return of those displaced from their ancestral land.
Coordinator of the IDP, Reverend Gambo Waziri, disclosed that the IDP camp was set-up haven seen the plight of the people that were attacked, saying, there is a need to help cushion their suffering.
He explained, “It has not been easy for us but we thank God for individuals, groups who have shown concern in bringing foods, Mattresses and other items.
“We feel encouraged seeing the umbrella body of SOKAPU here. We have about 15 pregnant women, 153 nursing mothers and victims who survived the carnage with bullet wounds responding to treatments in some of the hospitals.”
Some of the victims who narrated their ordeals appealed to the government to bring the perpetrators to book and to also guarantee their safe return to their villages to continue their normal activities, noting that it is their only means of livelihoods.
