Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), on Friday, revealed that residents of Gbagyi community in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State, made a pay-off settlement of over N3 million to Fulani militia.
The settlement, it discovered, was to enable them harvest their food crops and spend the festive period at home without fear of attacks.
The group released a statement explaining how it discovered the situation on Thursday.
They explained that the discovery was made when it took palliatives to about 1,600 Gbagyi Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who had fled surrounding villages taken over by armed Fulani militia.
“We took drugs, sleeping mats and clothes to these traumatised citizens who Barde visited once and gave N50,000 for their feeding. They told us of the shocking impunity exhibited by the invaders, how they collect huge sums of money to allow the villagers to harvest their crops,” the statement read in part.
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“We also spoke to victims of kidnapping who were ruined economically and more. We spoke to those who lost loved ones and property. We were told that the entire Chikun ward was under the mercy of the armed killers. It is unbelievable that we have a government.
“A certain community paid N3m to the militia to be allowed to stay and spend Christmas.
“We were told that the entire Chikun ward is under the mercy of the armed killers. These people will spend their Christmas in sorrow and pain. No assistance to them is too small,” the statement read.
The group described the situation as “unfortunate”.
According to them, the recent development only goes to show how terrible the security crises rocking the nation has gotten to.
The Fulani militia, aka Fulani herders, come from a nomadic, Muslim dominated tribe.
In 2014 the Global Terrorism Index named the militia the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world.