Some traditional and religious leaders have collectively blamed the frequent communal crises in Kaduna State to the fact that perpetrators had never been brought to book to serve as deterrent to others.
The leaders, who spoke today at a Town Hall meeting held with the State Governor, Nasir Ahmed el-Rufai, at Kasuwar Magani in Kajuru Local Government area, stressed the need for the government to be more proactive in tackling crisis before it develops into a big security problem.
The Sarkin Kasuwar Magani, Ibrahim Abdullahi, who spoke at the event, insisted that lack of necessary action against perpetrators had contributed largely to fueling more crises in the area and appealed to the state government to look into the matter.
He called on traditional leaders, irrespective of religion and tribe, to shun sentiment and report any criminal act in their chiefdoms.
This was even as the Secretary of the Jama’atu Nasril Islam in Kajuru local government, Tijjani Muhammad, appealed to the governor to ensure that perpetrators “are really brought to book.”
He recalled that some of those known to have actively participated in the crisis in the past were arrested and released.
The Secretary of Christian Association of Nigeria in the area, Pastor Joseph Maigida, also expressed similar concern.
Responding, governor el-Rufai promised to punish the perpetrators of the crisis, stressing that his government would not tolerate acts of lawlessness.
The governor, who asked the people of the state to live peacefully with one another irrespective of differences among them, lamented the manner in which the social media is being used by self-centered residents of the community to cause mayhem through the spread of fake news and hate speeches.
El-Rufa’i described such act as criminal, and vowed that those engaged in it would be duly identified and punished.
The governor assured that security agents are monitoring and tracking masterminds of crisis in the state.
He appealed to citizens of the state to report any culprit to security agencies, assuring them that criminals would never go free under his administration.
