A prominent Non Governmental organisation- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has condemned as despicable, reprehensible and outrageous the false and unsubstantiated claim made by the Kaduna governor Malam Nassir Elrufai alleging that 66 Fulanis were slaughtered by Christians in Kajuru LGA of Kaduna State.
HURIWA in a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and National media Director Miss Zainab Yusuf said it was unimaginable that the Kaduna governor who had also threatened to kill off foreign election observers should they intervene in the botched February 16th Presidential elections is the same person who briefed the media and dished out what has turned out as as fake news in which he falsely claimed that 66 Fulani persons including women and children were massacred in what HURIWA thinks is an attempt to stoke up Ethno-religious civil strife and possibly disrupt the general elections in a state that has remained volatile since the past three decades.
HURIWA has also condemned the news media that carried the fake information without making any effort to investigate the claims which was dished out to them without any empirical evidence or any shreds of facts or even demanding to see forensic, medical and security reports but proceeded to circulate the half baked tissues of lies and a hate filled story concocted allegedly by the Kaduna governor for purely political reasons. HURIWA said the action of the media in running with that sensitive but faje story could have undermined national security and imperiled peace and ethnic harmony in Nigeria.
The Rights group stated that journalism thrives on truth and objectivity and wondered why the media practitioners never asked to see the physical evidence but chose to splash the sensational story on the pages of newdpapers on a day the nation was about holding one of the most hotly contested general elections in which the poorly performed President Muhammadu Buhari has displayed overwhelming tendencies that smacks of desperation and avarice for power by all means including a claim that nobody can unseat him from power.
HURIWA has therefore decided to petition the international community including the international criminal court in The Hague Netherlands to inform these institutions and World leaders that the Kaduna governor must be arrested and prosecuted for crimes against humanity for all the atrocious killings of Christians by armed Fulani terrorists belonging to the Miyetti Allah cattle owners Association who share same Ethno-religious affinities with governor Elruffai of Kaduna state.
HURIWA also stated that the same Kaduna governor had stated that he paid armed Fulani killer gangsters so they can stop killing Christians in Southern Kaduna state – an action that violates his oath of office and the Constitution which compels him to ensure that mass murderers rather than been bribed needed to be arrested, prosecuted and punished.
HURIWA said thus: “We strongly condemns this war-mowar-mongering political turncoat currently holding the office of Kaduna state governor. His caustic and insensitive tongue has shown that he is unfit to govern such a complex and multi religious state like Kaduna. His (Nassir Elrufai) attempt to instigate a Christians versus Moslems war in that state may have been motivated by his morbid fear that his time is up going by his poor performance in office and for his ill -advised decision to pick a Moslem as his running mate thereby alienating half of the state’s population who are Christians. He must be watched by all the security forces in Nigeria as a person of interest and a terror suspect”.
HURIWA also stated that going by the declarations from multiple sources, what has become clear is that the story by the Kaduna state governor on the so- called killings remains a fabrication because even the Kaduna State Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria on Saturday dismissed claims by Governor Nasir el-Rufai that 66 persons were killed by gunmen in the Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.
HURIWA recalled that the CAN Chairman in the state, Rev. Joseph Hayab, who stated this in a statement, insisted that the governor deliberately gave out the wrong information to deceive Nigerians and the international community even as he said the false alarm as contained in a statement by the governor on Friday evening, was aimed at stirring up violence in the state.
HURIWA recalled that the Religious leadets had stated as follows: “We are aware that the incident happened in the late hours of Sunday 10 February to February 12, 2019, at about 1am at Gindin Gada in the Maro Ward of Kajuru Local Government, Kaduna State where unidentified hoodlums went into the village and killed about 11 people in their sleep. “The incident led to reprisals. Two of the suspects were said to have been apprehended and handed over to the Divisional Police Officer in the area. It was in the afternoon of the said date of the attack (as contained in the press statement) that the District Head of Kufana, Mr Titus Dauda, and four of his local chiefs were released after their invitation by the Department of State Services.“We see this as an illogical intentional, premeditated attempt at stirring violence in the state for whatever expected gains. The incidence of raising false alarm by the Kaduna State Government should make Nigerians realise that some of our leaders are also guilty of hate speech and that makes them major actors in the game that has denied us peace and has claimed the lives of our love ones.’’
