Congress of Northern Christians berates Buhari on S/Kaduna Killings  

By Kingsley Chukwuka, Jos

Angered by the incessant killings that has take its toll on the inhabitants of Southern Kaduna, the Congress of Northern Nigerian Christians (CNNC), has taken a tall stand against President Muhammadu Buhari, warning that anarchy looms if the President refuse to act.

Speaking in a world press conference in Jos on Tuesday, the National Youth President of CNNC, Engr. Daniel Kadzai, said there are over 40 million Northern Nigerian Christian youths who can be mobilise to take up arms to defend themselves if the federal government continue to pay lip service to the wanton killings which has continued unabated in Christian dominated areas of Northern Nigeria and the country at large.

Kadzai said unlike the steps taken by the Governor of Borno State, Babagana Zulum, to visit Boko Haram victims, President Buhari has not deemed it fit to visit the people of southern Kaduna since the massacre of the region began 5 years ago.

He cited section 305 of the 1999 Constitution which provides for the imposition of a state of emergency in the country or any part of it.

“The section empowers the president to issue the declaration by way of official gazette”, Kadzai reiterated.

“We will not hesitate to mobilise Christian youths in the country to defend their brethren against bandits, if urgent actions were not taken to end the genocide in the predominantly Christian southern Kaduna.

“The Federal Government and Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna have the emergency task of ending the killing of Christians in Kaduna or the Christian youths will mobilise to defend themselves.

“Christian youths constitute over a quarter of the country’s population, noting that it would be dangerous to allow such group to embark on self-defence.

“El-Rufai’s comment on the issue is a pointer that government is deliberately playing politics with the lives of Christians in the state.

“The killings in Jos during former Governor Joshua Dariye, where a state of emergency was declared by then President Olusegun Obasanjo, was child’s play to the level of killings going on in southern Kaduna. So, if not politics, the governor has proved that he is incompetent and the president is supposed to do the necessary thing by declaring a state of emergency in Kaduna,” the CNNC youth president said.

Our correspondent reports that the police have not commented on the identity of the perpetrators or they motivations behind the attacks.

However, media reports said the State Governor claimed the recent attacks were carried out by armed bandits terrorising Nigeria’s northwest states, the media reports included witnesses attributing blame to a militia targeting Southern Kaduna communities on ethnic grounds.