Catholic archbishop to El-Rufai: Stop Southern Kaduna killings now

The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, on Saturday called on Governor Nasir El-Rufai to show more will in dealing with the perpetrators of the killings in Southern Kaduna.

Martins, in a statement signed by the Director of Social Communications, Rev. Fr. Anthony Godonu, urged the state government to genuinely engage religious leaders in Southern Kaduna to help build peace among the people.

He said, “We have seen too many occasions in which villages are attacked in the middle of the night and people, including babies, children and women, are killed with their properties destroyed while they are in bed at night. The pattern has been repeated in Benue, Taraba and Adamawa states.

“We have situations in which people are too afraid to go to their farms because of the so-called bandits. The government cannot be exonerated from the accusation of collusion with the criminals when more lip service is paid to the problem than adequate practical efforts to contain the situation and punish the perpetrators.

“If people can see good faith on the part of government and see adequate effort to arrest the perpetrators and bring them to face the law, the effort at achieving peace would be achieved.” Punch