A don and human rights lawyer, Chidi Odinkalu, has described as false, the statement from the Kaduna state government that 66 people were killed in attacks on Kajuru local government area of the state.

Recall that Samuel Aruawan, spokesman of Nasir el-Rufai, had on Friday said the killings reportedly took place in eight settlements across the local government area.

Confirming the incidents, Governor el-Rufai said the killings were deliberate and designed to attract reprisals and destabilise that local government during the election.

But speaking during a programme on Channels Television, Odinkalu accused el-Rufai of lying about the number of casualties and the timing of the attacks.

According to him, while killings were recorded in the Kajuru last week, the casualties were not more than 11.

Odinkalu, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, said he contacted many sources in the state, including residents, traditional and religious rulers and nobody confirmed the incident resulting in 66 deaths.

“That story, if you noticed, that story was broken by the Kaduna state governor with his publicist, Muyiwa Adekeye standing by his shoulder. No police officer, no SSS officer, no security person in the vicinity and he was throwing out words that were calculated to be very incendiary on the eve of very difficult elections about a location that is very difficult and has had historical problems of violence across communities,” Odinkalu said.

“And he was dropping this bromide like he was on some substance, with all due respect. I spent all of last night from all the sources in Kajuru and nobody can verify or substantiate that there has been a killing of 66 people in Kajuru over the past few days.”

The lawyer asked the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to pay close attention to the comments of politicians in the election period.

“There were some killings in Kajuru last week up until Saturday or Sunday. And the best numbers we can get, every life matters so I am not saying this carelessly, about 10, 11 people were reportedly killed in Kajuru.

“As a matter of fact, there are still victims from that killing at St Jerat Hospital. The governor indeed was at St Jerat hospital on Tuesday. When did these killings that he talked about happen?

“You cannot on the eve of a very difficult election, stand by yourself with your publicist, and be talking about the killing of 66 people of one ethnic group and be talking about it with a celebratory air, that is beyond irresponsible,” he said.