• Group tells Buhari, el-Rufai to resign over Kaduna killings
• Ashiru wants president to overhaul security architecture
• Forum urges security agencies to be neutral in ending killings
Gunmen have killed an employee of the Kaduna State Ministry of Justice, Haro Gandu, and abducted his wife and son.
The Guardian gathered that the hoodlums broke into the lawyer’s house at Tollgate area, along Abuja Road, Kaduna, on Sunday night through one of the windows and shot him.
Kaduna Police Public relations Officer (PPRO), Mohammed Jalige, could not be reached at press time, as his mobile phone was not connecting.
But former Commissioner for Economic Planning and bereaved brother, Timothy Gandu, confirmed the incident, adding that the bandits shot his brother in the shoulder and shot him again in the back while he was trying to escape.
After killing him, they abducted his wife and son, he said.
Concerned Nigerians, a pro-democracy and human rights group, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai to end the killings in southern Kaduna or resign their positions as president and governor respectively.
The group stated in Abuja at the weekend that the continued destruction of lives and properties in southern Kaduna by suspected herdsmen without any meaningful intervention from the federal and state governments was shocking and despicable.
The group called for the resignation of Governor el-Rufai and President Buhari, claiming that they had woefully failed in their duties to the people they were elected to protect.
In a related development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the 2019 Kaduna governorship elections, Isa Ashiru, has urged Buhari to overhaul the nation’s security architecture to overcome terrorism, communal attacks and banditry.
According to the former state and federal lawmaker, Nigeria cannot attain the desired socio-economic development unless the Federal Government ends the menace.
He said, “Our dear nation and our dear Kaduna are at a crossroads. The activities of criminals and bandits across the country, Kaduna in particular, have assumed an unimaginable proportion. In the past one week alone, a sizeable number of people have been gruesomely murdered, maimed or kidnapped across various communities in Chikun, Igabi, Zango Kataf, Kaura, Jema’a, Giwa, Birnin Gwari and Kajuru councils.”
Also, the Interfaith Dialogue Forum for Peace has urged security agencies to maintain neutrality in the process of finding lasting solution to the crisis in southern Kaduna.
It warned of looming food crisis if the violence continues unabated.
In a statement signed by its co-chairmen, Alhaji Kunle Sanni and Bishop Sunday Onuoha, yesterday in Abuja, the forum regretted that violence in the state led to more Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps.
They said: “Coming during the farming season, the violence also threatens to unleash hunger on the people of the region and the state generally next year, as the predominantly farming communities are restricted to cultivating only their backyard farms for fear of attacks.”
Vulnerable populations like women and the youth are at high risk of death and loss of livelihoods. They face the additional risks of rape and break in educational pursuits.