Army torture, detain 15 community leaders in Southern Kaduna for ‘killing’ 75 cows- SOKAPU  

The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) has raised alarm over alleged torture and detention of 15 community leaders in Southern Kaduna by the Nigeria Army, later transferred to the Nigerian Police for further detention over 17 days without trial. The community leaders were said to be accused of ‘killing’ 75 cows belonging to the Fulani.

SOKAPU Spokesman, Luka Binniyat, in a statement on Saturday decried that “it is over 17 days that 15 Atyap Community leaders in Atyap Chiefdom, Zangon Kataf Local Government Area, in Southern part of Kaduna State, have been detained without trial.” He noted that among them is a very sick 85-year-old man, 4 village heads and youth leaders.

Luka Binniyat revealed that the detained community leaders were tricked to a meeting by officers of the Operation Safe Haven on the March 31, 2021 at the Headquarters of the Operation Safe Haven, close to Kafanchan, Jemaa LGA, Kaduna State. He disclosed that after spending four purported agonising days of torture in the hands of the military, they were later transferred to the Kafanchan Police Area Command.

SOKAPU Spokesman lamented: “again, they suffered brutal detention in the hands of the police between 3rd and 9th April 2021 and were never arraigned before any court of law.

“These leaders, who had come on the invitation of the soldiers so that a way forward could be found over the incessant invasions, killings and arson in Atyap Communities, were again transferred to Kaduna State Police Force Headquarters, where they are now held at the Kabala West Police Station, Kaduna, as tension continues to rise in Atyap land over the sufferings they are being subjected.”

Luka Binniyat further decried: “these men, who are now forcefully kept under unhygienic and inhuman conditions, have amongst them elderly persons that are sick and infirmed.

“The allegations against them, as SOKAPU was briefed by their lawyers, is that “they conspired, maimed and killed 75 cows,” (a figure that later changed to 300 cows) belonging to Fulani.”

It was indicated that the detained community leaders have all denied any involvement in the claimed killing of the Fulani cows, protesting that the allegation was trumped-up to eliminate them. It was also noted that the assumed offence of killing cows do not equate homicide which the security operatives were said to be accusing the community leaders. SOKAPU protested that the community leaders were detained when the security operatives had not conducted thorough investigations, arguing that the killing of cows may not have even occurred, saying the security operatives never presented the cows killed by the detained leaders for evidence.

SOKAPU further protested that the Kaduna State Police Command, and Governor Nasir el-Rufai, the Chief-Security-Officer of Kaduna State, would not allow the detained leaders to be granted bail.

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The detained Atyap community  leaders were identified to include: Atyoli Ishaya Achi, Dakachin Zonzon Community; Atyoli Joseph Bitrus, Secretary to Dakachin Wawarafi; Atyoli Bitrus Adamu, Village Head of Ma’wakili; Atyoli Samaila Kazah, Village Head of Unguwan Tabo.

Others include elder Waje Laah, (85 years and very ill) of Mabuhu village; Atyoli Ayuba Dodo, Dakachin Mashan 1; and Peter Katung, a youth leader.

SOKAPU Spokesman disclosed that in the past nine months, the Atyap ethnic nationality, which is one of the biggest block of the 65 ethnic groups that form SOKAPU, has suffered severe destruction in property and has lost over 100 lives in the hands of killers, who surviving victims were said to have clearly defined as armed Fulani militia. The SOKAPU spokesman added that some of the killers are known faces that had lived in their communities before suddenly moving out.

It was recalled that last week (11th April 2021), Wawarafi was attacked by Fulani militia and the following people were killed:

Dauda Joshua 54 years; Francis Ayuba 30; including children – Philip Dauda 8 years, and Florence Denis 3 years.

Luka Binniyat declared that part of the village was completely burnt after it was looted. He noted that not a single Fulani person or leader has been called for questioning.

According to Luka Binniyat “there is no month since July 2020 that an Atyap Community is not under the invasion of armed Fulani militia, even as the Atyap traditional leadership has made several overtures to the Hausa and Fulani settlers on its land for the violence to stop. This is a gesture that even Governor El-Rufai acknowledges.”

Luka Binniyat questioned why is it that no Fulani or Hausa leader in Atyap land has never been called for interrogation, but the Nigerian government only ordered for Atyap local leaders to be rounded up and locked up over allegations of  involvement in the death of cattle?

SOKAPU had reported that Fulani cattle have destroyed food crops on hundreds of hectares of Atyap farmlands, but the Nigerian government ignored the complaints.

“If anyone deserves justice and compensation in the violence that came over Atyap land, like in other parts of Southern Kaduna, it is the Atyap people,” Luka Binniyat declared.

Governor Nasir el-Rufai had in June 2020, imposed a 24 hour curfew over Atyap land after the killing of  a Christian youth outside Zangon Urban town led to mass peaceful protest that turned violent when soldiers fired live bullets into the crowd, killing one person and injuring 9 Unguwan Wakili, near Zangon Kataf town.

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Luka Binniyat pointed out also that during the 24 hours rigidly enforced curfew, which was to last for over three months, Fulani militia, who are usually exempted from it because of their nomadic way of living, took full advantage of it.

Luka Binniyat narrated that on the 10th of July, 2020, Chibob Village was attacked and the town razed to the ground, while 9 persons were killed.

The next day, Kigudu came under the fire of armed Fulani militia and 10 women, an elderly man and a baby were burnt alive. The village was looted dry.

The same cruelty continued on the 7th of August 2020. In a well-coordinated attack that night, Apiako was invaded leaving 7 persons dead; Ataka mawai was also attacked and 10 persons were murdered.

Kibori came under siege and 7 Atyap persons were brutally killed, and the town burnt to the ground. They also attacked Magamiya village and killed 4 persons. These are just a few of the killings that the Atyap have suffered in the hands of armed herdsmen, some of them known to the villagers, Luka Binniyat said.

Luka Binniyat noted that SOKAPU has never heard that an Ardo or Fulani leader in Atyap land has ever been questioned.

But this is the pattern of justice under the government of Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State, he decried.

Luka Binniyat recalled that in 2016, in the renewed heat of the killings in Southern Kaduna by armed Fulani herdsmen, Mr. Luka Garba, village head of one of the most ravaged communities (of Southern Kaduna), Mile 1 in, Goska District, Kaningkon  Chiefdom, in Jemaa LGA, was arrested by the police and taken to Kaduna. In a bizarre twist, when his boss, the District Head of Goska, Moses Barde, under which Mile-1 falls, was also arrested and jailed when he went to see his detained subordinate. SOKAPU spokesman observed that no Fulani man nor any of their leaders was invited for questioning. Yet, the grizzly acts were carried out by their men.

Luka Binniyat further highlighted that in 2017, the respectable and revered traditional ruler of the Kurama nation in Kauru Local Government Area in Southern Kaduna, B’gwan Kurmi, Dr. Ishaku Sabo Damina, was arrested like a common criminal and slammed in Kaduna prisons where he stayed for weeks before his was released on bail. His offence was that he handed over a Fulani man suspected to be a notorious kidnapper in his domain to the military and the man later died under unclear circumstances.

In February 2019, while Adara land was suffering its worst invasions and killings in the hands of Fulani militia,  9 Adara leaders, including the Wazirin Adara, (who the Adara regard as their interim traditional leader), Eng Bawa Magaji, Awemi Dio Maisamari, the National President of the Adara Development Association (ADA ), including a retired Commissioner of police, Sani Magaji, and 6 other respectable Adara leaders, were arrested and clamped in jail in Kaduna prisons for alleged involvement in the violence against their own communities. After 120 days in prison, the police said that investigations found nothing that implicated them in the tragedy that was eating up their land.

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SOKAPU had to make the above reference for the world to see the kind of two societies that have evolved in Kaduna State under the watch of Governor Nasir el-Rufai: One in which the victims are dragged for punishment and the other where the alleged perpetrators are protected, pampered and are unrepentant.

“While SOKAPU does not in any way support lawlessness in any form, we, however, take exception when the law is only directed at the victims

“We are, therefore, calling for the immediate release of these men to ease off the tension building up in Atyap land and among its neighbors. They should be granted bail by the police or charged to court so that they can apply for bail.

“We are appealing to Atyap youths and those of their neighbours to remain calm, obey the law while keeping vigilant over their communities, SOKAPU Spokesman, Luka Binniyat declared.