CAN wants perpetrators of Kaduna violence punished
By Abujah Racheal
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has urged the Federal and Kaduna State Governments to rise up to the occasion and stop the killings in the state and also punish the perpetrators.
The CAN President, Rev Samson Ayokunle, made the call in a statement issued on Sunday in Abuja by his Special Assistant on Media and Communications, Pastor Adebayo Oladeji.
Ayokunle decried the two weeks of crisis in the state that led to the maiming and killing of innocent people in the state, including a paramount ruler, the Agom Adara, Maiwada Galadima.
The Agom Adara was attacked and kidnapped by unknown persons on Oct. 19, along with his wife who was later released.
His police escort, driver and three others were killed at the scene of the abduction.
It will be recalled that the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) confirmed that 23 people were killed and 17 injured in parts of Kaduna metropolis during the Oct. 22 violence.
The Executive Secretary, SEMA, Ben Kure, disclosed this during an assessment tour of the affected areas
According to Ayokunle, the killings in Adamawa, Benue and Plateau in the last two years have been going unchecked and many are even unreported.
“This is sad; Nigeria has not become a lawless state. Are those hoodlums better equipped and more organised than our security agencies? Are the security operatives compromised? This is reprehensible.
“We ask the political class to stop politicising the orgy of killings; governments should sanction those responsible for this horrifying bloodshed,” he said.
He commended the Kaduna state government for reviewing the curfew imposed on the state capital and environs.
The president of CAN called for “a total overhauling of our security agencies with a view to replacing all the security chiefs.
He further called for implementation of all the white papers on ethno-religious uprisings in the country in the recent past.
Ayokunle also called for immediate trial of those apprehended for the killings in Southern Kaduna two years ago, among others.
“Government should recover all the lands and villages illegally occupied by the hoodlums and criminals in the North Central,” he added.
The CAN president said that as the country approached another general election, all hands must be on deck to restore peace and sanity to all the trouble spots in the country.
