By Israel Bulus
No fewer than 38 people, who were murdered by bandits on Sunday evening in Madamai community, Southern Kaduna, were buried on Thursday.
The victims were buried at Malagum 1, Kagoro in the Kaura Local Government Area of Kaduna State after a funeral service presided over by the Catholic Bishop of Kafanchan, Julius Kundi.
The Senator representing Southern Kaduna Senatorial District, Senator Danjuma La’ah, advised Southern Kaduna people to defend themselves against the terrorist herdsmen.
He charged the people to remain vigilant. He called on government to take proactive measures in securing the lives and properties.
La’ah noted that the carnage inflicted on the Southern Kaduna clearly showed that there was nobody to defend them.
Laah stated, “We’re not here to react to the killings but to give a befitting burial to our loved ones and make the whole world know what’s happening to us.”
La’ah stated that; Southern Kaduna people have been chased to their homes, miamed in a very barbaric manner, saying it was time for the people to wake up and defend their land.
” The other time we buried 134 in 2 burial ground, adding I was among those that park those dead bodies into the mass Grave,” Laah said.
He reiterated the need that since Southern Kaduna have been chased to their homes, it is therefore obligatory for them to come out and defend themselves against all odds.” He added.
In his sermon, the Catholic Bishop, also, advised the people in the region to unite and fight terrorists that had rendered many of them homeless.
Kundi stated, “Here before us are victims of terrorism. This service was organised to strengthen us to stand firm and defend our land against the killers.”
The Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Kaduna State, Reverend Joseph Hayab, said that Southern Kaduna was tired of losing its loved ones.
He noted that the senatorial district was tired of writing press statements and organising press conferences.
Also, the President of the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, Jonathan Asake, called on the Federal Government to declare bandits as terrorists.
He noted that the so-called bandits had brought down a fighter jets. He asked, “What else does the government want?”
“While they are using terrorists to supplant people of our community, we have always known their agenda. It is to weaken us and take over our ancestral lands and bring in foreign people.
Asake maintained that the people of Southern Kaduna had no place to go, stressing the land was given to them by God, adding that nobody could displace them.
The president further said that herdsmen were attacking the people of Southern Kaduna because of the protection they were enjoying from the present government.
He said, “The present leadership of Southern Kaduna and their elites will write and keep all the atrocities meted out to them for their children to know that the kind of injustices perpetrated against their parents.
He said the 38 victims buried were testimonies of what had been going on for long in the area.
According to him, over 104 communities have been displaced. He added many schools had been closed for over four years.
He called on the state government to pay gratuities of thousands of civil servants it sacked. He disclosed that some of them had already died without receiving their entitlements.
Asake stated, “Most of them have to withdraw their children from schools. Some of them are on life-support in hospitals, while some of them have to relocate to the villages because they cannot afford to pay their rents.”
He added that the state government had gone ahead to balkanize the chiefdoms in Southern Kaduna.
Asake added, “Out of the 18 district heads, one of them has been uplifted and given the status of an Emir over a community that is almost 100 per cent non-Muslim.”
Suspected herdsmen had on Sunday and Monday attacked communities in Zango Kataf and Kaura local government areas, where they killed a total of 48 people. On Tuesday, three more corpses were discovered bringing the death toll to 51.