The Joint Action Civil Society Crisis Centre (JACSCC) has accused the Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir elRufai of the arrest and detention of 23 under aged persons from Adara community without trial since September 2018.
The group, while accusing the elRufai’s government of threatening, victimization and arbitrary arrests of activists and community leaders of Adara, called for a balance in the scale of justice in the treatment of the crisis. The group stated this in a statement tittled: “Justice not Conquest in the Southern Kaduna Killings” made available to IMPACT NEWS on Friday.
Adara community has been in the news lately for bloody violence especially between locals and herdsmen. Last year the paramount ruler of the community, HRH Dr. Maiwada Galadima (JP) was kidnapped by unknown persons and his lifeless body was later found.
According to the statement jointly signed by Agnes Ogugua, Adamu Kotorkoshi and Jonathan Ichayer, Kaduna state government was also accused of attempt to utilize the judiciary as a tool to silence “activists and non-indigenes who dare to speak up against the ongoing pogrom and arrests in the state.
“Such activists include Dr. Chidi Odinkalu, who had publicly expressed doubt on the veracity of the numbers disseminated by the state government and had called for a transparent investigation of the facts surrounding the Kajuru crises,” the group pointed out.
While calling on Nigerians to actively participate in ending the spate of violence in the country, JACSCC urged President Buhari to set up an independent panel of inquiry into the crisis.
“We therefore call on the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces – President Mohammed Buhari, to set up an independent panel of inquiry into the crisis. We call on the service chiefs to ensure that law enforcement agencies act and are seen as acting impartially in the ongoing crisis.
“We call on the judiciary of Kaduna state to ensure that its actions and pronouncements are above board at all times. We remind the Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El Rufai to act within the circumference of the rule of Law and the Constitution which he swore to uphold; and therefore to be circumspect in his utterances and actions, and seek to act in the best interest of the residents and indigenes of Kaduna state, irrespective of their ethnic or religious affiliations.”
