CAN fingers Council of Imams in alleged plot to wipe out christians in Kaduna

Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has branded Kaduna State Council of Imams and Ulamas as part of the evil network whose sole aim is to decimate the Christian population in Southern Kaduna.

CAN was reacting to the statement credited to the Islamic clerics who demanded that CAN president, Dr. Samson Ayokunle, the Senator Representing Southern Kaduna, Senator Danjuma Laah, the president of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Dr. Solomon Musa, Rev. Zechariah Gado, Sunday Marshal, Dr. Danfulani and CAN Secretary General, Rev. Dr. Musa Asake be arrested for their utterances over the killings of Southern Kaduna Christians by suspected Fulani herdsmen.

The Islamic Council claimed that the utterances may lead to reprisal attacks and more killings.

But in its reaction CAN said the position of the group has revealed that the Imams were “part of the evil network desperately trying to decimate the Christian population of Southern Kaduna and the taking over of their lands by Islamist herdsmen terrorists.”

CAN added, “These are the Muslim clerics that encourage and inspire the jihad carried out by their foot soldiers.”

The position of the Council of Imams and Ulamas of Kaduna State according to CAN has only thrown open the hypocrisy of those behind the call.

The Christian body reasoned that had it been the Muslim clerics preach peace, tolerance and respect for human lives, “we would expect them to have come out to call the rampaging Muslims herdsmen to order; condole the victims and join in the process of looking for a lasting solution, but mum was their response.”

CAN, stated this in a statement on Wednesday made available to newsmen by its scribe, Rev. Musa Asake.

It said it was worrisome how the Islamic Council could be silent on the revelation of Kaduna State Governor Nasir el-Rufai, who once stated that he knows the killers of Southern Kaduna Christians and has traced some of them to some African countries and paid them sums of money to stop the pogrom.

Part of the statement read, “To CAN, this is a surprising shameless, unveiled criminal support for evil. While, the killings of children, women, aged and the most defenceless of Southern Kaduna natives and the destruction of entire communities was at its peak, no one knew that a group called Council of Imams and Ulama existed in Kaduna state.

“When Church leaders under the banner of CAN kept praying for Southern Kaduna and other affected areas in the country, visiting traumatized communities and softly calling on government to do the needy, this Council of Imams was silent and invisible.

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“On August 16, 2016, a chieftain of Kaduna State Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Dr. Haruna Usman, in a well-publicised reaction to the mindless killings by the terrorists, said that the sacking of Ninte, and other villages, in Jema’a Local Government, was in response to the killing of a Fulani ardo in Ninte.

“In another press conference in Kaduna on November 7, 2016 Jema’a Foundation, Miyetti Allah and Mobgal Fulbe Development Association confirmed that Fulani and Hausa Muslims have been behind the ethnic cleansing and destruction of villages and houses of worship in Southern Kaduna.

“Those who addressed the press were Abdullahi Hassan Mohammed, Ahmad M. Yandeh and Abdulhamid Musa. Again, on December 31, 2016, Dr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, the Assistant National Secretary of Miyetti Allah also echoed the same position that the Fulani were carrying out reprisal killings.

“In view of this glaring confession by all these Fulani men, is it not reprehensible, distasteful and vile that the Council of Imams and Ulama Kaduna State did not call for the arrest of these people who are in conspiracy with the murderers?”

Meanwhile, the United Nations (UN) on Wednesday waded into the worsening crisis in Southern Kaduna and assured it will investigate the killings in the affected areas to ensure justice prevails.

UN position was contained in a memo it sent to the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) by Dr Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations on Extra-Judicial or Arbitrary Executions.

SERAP had petition the UN calling on the body to intervene in the extra-judicial murders in Southern Kaduna, which has reportedly claimed over 800 lives majorly of the children, women and the elderly.

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