Northern Bishops demand immediate end to Southern Kaduna killings

The Pentecostal Bishops Forum of the 19 Northern States (PBFNS) in Nigeria has called for an immediate fortification of security arrangements in the entire Southern Kaduna communities.

The Pentecostal Prelate and Chairman, PBFNS, JohnPraise Daniel, told newsmen at a news conference on Tuesday in Abuja that the killings in Southern Kaduna must stop immediately.

Bishop Daniel who is also founder of Dominion Chapel International Church, said the government must ensure prompt arrest and prosecution of perpetrators of the dastardly act as well as their sponsors, whoever and wherever they may be.

According to him, the government should institute a regime of structured compensation for losses incurred by helpless victims who were still alive or relatives of dead one and that government must also mobilise, engage traditional and religious institutions in the area for effective consensus building among the various socio-cultural and economic groups in Kaduna State.

He said, “There must be effective sensitisation of the people to their responsibilities toward one another and to the government, as well as the need for harmonious relationships in the communities.”

Daniel urged the government to revisit the age-long simmering socio-economic and political feuds among the various groups as part of measures to arrive at an equitable, acceptable and enduring solution.

He said, “We must move beyond rhetoric and demand decisive actions from those whose duty it is under the constitution to protect the defenceless citizens.

“The situation had assumed a dangerous dimension of ethnic cleansing, going by the methodology and clinical decimation of the population of the indigenous people with mindless ruthlessness.

He insisted that their organisation or the news conference was not to blame the government outright, but to make the government alive to its responsibilities.

He said, “Though, it is lamentable that no arrests and prosecutions have been recorded to date, we are joining our voices to the patriotic cries of concerned citizens, and groups nationally and internationally to strongly call on President Muhammadu Buhari, Governor Nasiru El-Rufai and relevant government functionaries to do more.”