Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has described the critics of his report of 66 persons killed in Kaduna as “bigoted busybodies.”
Criticisms have poured in since the governor announced the killings on the eve of the general elections which have now been postponed.
Most notable among the critics is a former head of the National Human Rights Commission, Chidi Odinkalu, who on Saturday in an interview on Channels TV, said he could not confirm the killings took place after contacting several sources in the area.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna chapter, also denied that the killings occurred.
However, in a statement on Sunday by El-Rufai’s spokesperson, Samuel Aruwan, the governor rebuked critics of the reported killings after visiting communities in Kajuru local government area on Saturday where the killing of 66 people was said to have occurred.
“The Kaduna State Government notes the concerted and apparently coordinated efforts by bigoted busy bodies to deny the Kajuru killings, or to minimise the casualty figures, and the specious arguments being deployed in this despicable quest. The Kaduna State Government condemns in the strongest terms attempts to politicise the killings.
“Only irresponsible and insensitive people can recklessly dismiss the deaths of members of a community with whom they have no contact. Private individuals and unelected actors cannot be allowed to reduce weighty matters of state security to the province of their limited networks, inexperienced lenses and narrow agendas.
“The government of a state cannot be detained by parochial, ethno-religious, partisan or electoral calculations from doing its duty to provide security, confirm incidents of security breaches, take steps to reassure affected communities and ensure that perpetrators are arrested and brought to justice,” the statement reads.
He added that the governor was accompanied by Faruk Yahaya, a major general and commander of the army’s 1 Division; I. Sani, an air commodore of the Nigerian Air Force; the Kaduna police commissioner, Ahmad Abdurrahman; and State Director of the State Security Service, A.I. Koya.
The chairman of Kajuru local government area, Cafra
