President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered security agencies to take decisive measures to bring an end to the recurring acts of violence and destruction in the southern part of Kaduna State.
This is contained in a statement issued in Abuja on Thursday by the President’s Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu.
Shehu said that already, on the directive of President Buhari, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, was in Southern Kaduna on Saturday and Sunday to assess the situation.
He said that in addition to the conventional policemen deployed to the area, a squadron of mobile policemen had now been stationed there to ensure law and order.
According to the Presidential aide, Nigerian army is also in the process of setting up two battalions in Southern Kaduna, while the military continues to carry out air surveillance across flash points of the area.
“President Buhari has equally directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to carry out a joint assessment of the situation with the sister agency in Kaduna, SEMA, to determine the level of response required for urgent aid to the victims of the violence.
“These measures should soon ensure the return of normalcy to the region, while the Kaduna State government continues its peace building efforts,’’ he added.
He said that the President condoled with the people of Southern Kaduna, who have lost loved ones in the recent violence.
President Buhari had been heavily criticised by the National leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, (CAN) over the manner the federal government was handling the Southern Kaduna killings.
CAN described President Muhammadu Buhari’s silence on the matter as sad and unacceptable.
Briefing journalists in Abuja on the crisis last week in Southern Kaduna, CAN National General Secretary, Rev. Musa Asake, said although the church in Nigeria has been subjected to a “systemic genocide and persecution through the instrumentality of Boko Haram, which has killed thousands of Christians and destroyed churches and over 50,000 houses since 2009, the current unprecedented onslaught against Christians in southern Kaduna by Islamic fundamentalists disguising as Fulani herdsmen had reached an alarming stage.”
Other critics had said while Buhari was always quick to issue a statement when killings happened abroad, he had been quiet when such killings took place in Nigeria.
Defending the cold silence of Pres. Buhari over the serial killings in Southern Kaduna, the presidency last week said that President Muhammadu Buhari had been mute because the state Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai, had been on top of the situation.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, on a Channels Television’s programme: Sunrise Daily, said that it was needless for the president to speak on the bloodletting in the restive part of the North-western state since the governor assured that he was in full control of the violent crisis and had been briefing his boss regularly.
