Shehu Sani: Killings in southern Kaduna acts of terrorism NOT vengeance

Shehu Sani, former senator representing Kaduna central, says the killings in southern Kaduna are acts of terrorism.

Kaduna has witnessed repeated killings in the past one week. Over 40 people have been killed in communities in Kaura, Zangon-Kataf, Kauru and Kajuru local government areas of the state.

On July 21, Garba Shehu, presidential spokesman, issued a statement saying the recent killings in Kaduna are motivated by politics and revenge.

The presidency said the situation in that part of the state is more complicated than what most people think, and that southern Kaduna enjoys comprehensive security deployments.

Nasir el-Rufai, governor of the state, said though the killings are usually given ethnic and religious undertones, the bandits still “attack people irrespective of their religion or ethnicity”.

In a statement on Saturday, the former senator said the killings are acts of terrorism and should be treated as such.

“The continuous violence and bloodshed in southern Kaduna stands is unconscionable and stands unreservedly condemned,” he said.

“The blood of the innocent is being spilt in the most unimaginably cruel and unspeakably evil manner and with impunity. In southern Kaduna, the north has lost its conscience and the nation has lost its will and spirit. Terrorists have turned southern Kaduna to a mortuary and a graveyard.

“The federal and state government must live up to their moral and constitutional duties and responsibilities by ending the slaughter and the carnage now.

“The killings in southern Kaduna is not a revenge, it’s terrorism and must be treated as such. Gunmen have become the government. Funerals services have become a daily routine. We are becoming a nation of endless mourning and ceaseless bereavement.

“Where women and children are killed and buried every day, the evil that will hunt and torment the nation has been planted. Nigerian political elites shed more tears when their friends dies and no tears when their poor people die.

“The Nigerian poor respectfully mourn the death of the rich or the powerful, the Nigerian rich or the powerful have no tears for the death of the poor.

“Where the people cannot be protected from systemic killings and are not allowed to defend themselves, the government carries the sum of the moral burden of guilt and complicity.

“The national flag is splashed with blood each time an innocent man or woman is killed.”