The Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) group has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to visit the troubled Southern Kaduna area and assess the situation for himself as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
Several lives have been lost and properties worth millions of Naira have been destroyed, following clashes between indigenes and suspected Fulani herdsmen.
The BBOG group also said Buhari’s visit will help douse the tension in Southern Kaduna and also restore peace in the area.
According to Daily Post, the group in a statement said “Sadly, President Muhammadu Buhari has repeatedly promised these would be looked into. However, no verifiable steps have been taken up to launch a government review of these many troubling reports in order to take appropriate preventive and punitive measures.
“The worst carnage is presently ongoing in Southern Kaduna and most of the killings are unreported. Killings are alleged by the indigenes and residents of communities in Southern Kaduna to be rampant still despite the recent mobilisation of military and police teams.
“We hereby demand, as a movement that does not wish to see a replay of the North-East destabilisation; that President Muhammadu Buhari should immediately visit Southern Kaduna to assess the situation for himself as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces.
“Following the visit, we expect a quick stabilisation of the situation in Southern Kaduna to pave the way for peace and reconciliation, which should be led by the state government.”
It will be recalled that Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka had berated President Buhari and Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State over the recent Southern Kaduna killings.
Soyinka faulted their perceived passivity over the series of attacks in the region leading up to the latest one, which reportedly claimed about 800 lives.
He especially criticised El-rufai for sending the killer Fulani herdsmen in the state some ‘ceasefire funds’ after they had committed heinous crimes.
He said: “Religion in the history of this continent has been a disastrous venture, a disaster in many zones and continues to be even so today. In this very nation in Southern Kaduna, over 800 souls were brutally extinguished suddenly while the issue of grazing lands versus farming is unquestionably part of the conflict, it is equally undeniable that religious differences have played crucial role in the conflict.