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| Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir El-Rufai |
El-Rufai made this known while fielding questions from Journalists in his office in Kaduna in 2016.
He said: “For southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post election violence.
“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains starts around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle.
“So many of these people were kiIIed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.
“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but of course after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that.
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensations for lives lost and he is begging them to stop kiIIing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven. There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.
Meanwhile, the Vice Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Northern Nigeria, Pastor John Hayab had alleged that the KiIIings going on in the middle-belt particularly in Southern Kaduna is targeted at Christians.
“The crisis in southern Kaduna and middle belt in general; you cannot in anyway separate Christians as the target from it. The criminals abound in this country. He stated
“They are doing it in Katsina, they are doing it in Zamfara and then, there is this group among whose special target are the Christians.
“They are enemies of Nigeria but they also have an agenda to hit at Christians either to create unnecessary tension in the country or in their own thinking to promote their identify.
“That’s why we are calling on the government that if they are sincere to take them as criminals and go after them as criminals, deal with them as criminals without some protection and giving it some cover because when government comes out publicly and says it is reprisals, you are just shielding those criminals.
“Which law do we have in our country that says that because someone hits you, you should now take guns and hit him. If you do that, you are a criminal.
“If the man really hits you, take him to the court of law. Report him to the police. But here, there is even no evidence that someone has hit you and you are busy kiIIing people everywhere and someone will say it is a reprisal. Which reprisal?
“There are so many factors in these kiIIings. Yes, there are those who are targeting Christians, there are also those who are out for certain reasons, targeting certain communities, all of them are criminals and government must deal with them.”