The Governor of Kaduna state, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, while answering questions from select journalists in his office, has said that his government has traced some Fulani bandits who are responsible for the killings in the state, and have paid them to stop the massacre.
The Governor said he had set up a committee to trace the Fulanis responsible for the destruction of communities, and continuous violence in the state.
It will be recalled that a few weeks ago, Gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen, had invaded the Fadan Karshi village in Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna state, killing its district head, Mr. Bala Madaki, 66, and his nephew, Emmanuel Tanko, who was taking the 2016 West African Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination.
The suspected Fulani invaders were said to have attacked on Sunday night, heading straight for the district head’s compound, and shooting sporadically before killing the Chief and his nephew, Tanko.
In addressing the worsening crisis in Kaduna, Governor El-Rufai said, “For Southern Kaduna, we didn’t understand what was going on and we decided to set up a committee under Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) to find out what was going on there. What was established was that the root of the problem has a history starting from the 2011 post-election violence.”
“Fulani herdsmen from across Africa bring their cattle down towards Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria. The moment the rains start around March, April, they start moving them up to go back to their various communities and countries.
“Unfortunately, it was when they were moving up with their cattle across Southern Kaduna that the elections of 2011 took place and the crisis trapped some of them.
“Some of them were from Niger, Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Senegal. Fulanis are in 14 African countries and they traverse this country with the cattle.
“So many of these people were killed, cattle lost and they organised themselves and came back to revenge.
“So a lot of what was happening in Southern Kaduna was actually from outside Nigeria. We got a hint that the late Governor Patrick Yakowa got this information and he sent someone to go round some of these Fulani communities, but of course after he died, the whole thing stopped. That is what we inherited. But the Agwai committee established that.
“We took certain steps. We got a group of people that were going round trying to trace some of these people in Cameroon, Niger Republic and so on to tell them that there is a new governor who is Fulani like them and has no problem paying compensation for lives lost and he is begging them to stop killing.
“In most of the communities, once that appeal was made to them, they said they have forgiven.
“There are one or two that asked for monetary compensation. They said they have forgiven the death of human beings, but want compensation for cattle. We said no problem, and we paid some. As recently as two weeks ago, the team went to Niger Republic to attend one Fulani gathering that they hold every year with a message from me.”