As the shock over the unending killings in Kaduna State, Nigeria's North-west continues, Fulani leaders and groups have cried out saying 85 of their kin have been murdered and their properties destroyed in Southern Kaduna.

The NEXT EDITION and its associates had in the first part of this story, reported how more than 136 people, mainly Christians, were slaughtered between June 10 – August 21, 2020 in nine Southern Kaduna local government areas.

INVESTIGATION: Horror in Southern Kaduna: Untold story of endless massacres, plunder by suspected Fulani militia (Part I)

However, Fulani groups and survivors have rejected the narratives of the killings, saying their people have also been murdered and their properties pillaged by Atyap and other indigenous communities in the zone.

According to them, Fulani people were being killed in many parts of Zangon Kataf and Kaura local government areas.

The Chairman, Miyeti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Kaduna State chapter, Haruna Tugga, his counterpart in Gan Allah Fulani Development Association of Nigeria (GADFAN), Ardo Gundaru, and Secretary General of the state chapter of Mobgal Fulbe Development Association (MOFDA), Nuhu Ibrahim, have come out to tell the other side of the story.

Others are the Chairman, Bandiraku Fulbe Youth Association of Nigeria (BAFYAN), Kaduna State chapter, Abbas Julde, and Coordinator, Kaduna State chapter of Fulbe Development and Cultural Organization (FUDECO), Abubakar Naseh.

The heads of the five Fulani groups have accused the media of putting out a jaundiced narrative about the crisis and insisted that their people have been slaughtered in many parts of Zangon Kataf and Kaura Local Government areas of the state.

In a document signed by leaders of the five groups and made available to this reporter, they alleged that between June 11 – 14, their members were "deliberately targeted, killed and maimed in a coordinated and systematic manner that leave us with no other conclusion than the fact that they are premeditated and well planned."

The leaders of the Fulani groups said they are speaking up against the calculated attempts to divert attention from the carnage meted to peace-loving and law-abiding Fulbe communities in Kataf Chiefdom and its surrounding villages.

"The current crisis emanated from a land dispute between the native Kataf farmers and the indigenous Hausa farmers of Zango town which eventually metamorphosed to an allegation of killing of a farmer of Atyap tribe, who went to cultivate the disputed farmland by unknown persons.

"This is a fact also acknowledged by the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union, (SOKAPU) in its statement issued hurriedly by its National Publicity Secretary, who is also from the same aggressor Kataf (Atyap) tribe on 11th June, 2020, following which the Kataf youths erupted in violence on the same date by launching simultaneous but ferocious attacks on unsuspecting Fulani communities across several villages in the Atyap Chiefdom.

"The unanswered poser still remains, why should the Atyap youths transfer their aggression on peaceful Fulani communities which have nothing to do with either the farmland dispute or the alleged killing of the Kataf farmer?

"The answer is probably not far-fetched, the Atyap youth have been brainwashed and sponsored for such evil acts by a certain illegal union which has been instigating and supporting Adara youth to launch similar attacks against Fulani communities in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State and even in other parts of Southern Kaduna geo-political zone," the Fulani leaders indicated in the signed document.

The tribal leaders also alleged that after the June 11 protest in Zangon town, Fulani communities were subjected to four days of well-coordinated attacks by suspected Atyap people.

During the attacks, they said helpless Fulani women, children and the aged were slaughtered in their homes while sleeping, on the highways and in the bushes where they raised cows.

While the level of damage to lives and properties to their members cannot be quantified, the leaders said they have credible intelligence pointing to the Atyap people as those launching the bloody attacks.


READ MORE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/investigation-horror-in-southern-kaduna-untold-story-of-endless-massacres-plunder-part-ii/