A civil society organization under the aegis Southern Kaduna Indigenes Progress Forum (SKPFo) has said it wishes to haul the Governor of Kaduna State, Mukhtar Yero before the International Criminal Court at the Hague for crimes against humanity.
The group is crying out against the systematic slaughter of residents of Southern Kaduna by Fulani jihadists, it said in a press statement.
”We believe that the genocide in southern Kaduna, especially the desperate campaign to wipe out the Takad people and occupy their pristine land by Fulani, and other jihadists, is not without the complicity of strong sponsors and mentors under the present government which has refused to take this issue seriously”, the statement reads.
It goes on to say, “SKIPFo wishes, with all sense of responsibility, to place the entire dark cloud hanging over the Maroa and Takad areas of Kaura LGA on the shoulders of His Excellency, Alh. Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, the Executive Governor of Kaduna State.
“The utterances, actions and inactions of Gov. Yero on the mass murder of our people clearly points to the fact that he does not care a hoot about what happens to us, and has directly or indirectly encouraged the pogrom going on.
“For example, when the late Governor Patrick Yakowa was in power, on the 15th February, 2012, Rev Joseph Hayab, Special Assistant to the Governor on Christian Affairs, and Mallam Halliru Maraya, Special Assistant to the Governor on Muslims Affairs, and Ishaku Dogo Makama, Executive Secretary, State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) Kaduna State, said, at a press conference, that after pocketing not less than N564 million in cash, apart from food stuff and other relief materials, Internally Displaced Persons (all Hausa/Fulani Muslims from Zonkwa) from the last April 2011 polls’ violence, had refused to leave the Hajj Camp, in Kawo, Kaduna.
“While the aforementioned enjoyed so much largesse from Yakowa, Yero, on his part, is not known to have offered a kobo to the much publicised 10,000 Takad refugees.
“He knows well that they are now under starvation since the Fulani made it impossible for them to return and cultivate their farms. Most of them are sick, traumatized without any form of assistance even as more violence is being visited on them on a daily basis under the watch of Yero.
”There is no further proof to show how he hates southern Kaduna people and encourages the systematic genocide of the Takad by starvation and violence.
“Encouraged, by the feeble security in place, a band of ravaging Fulani militants invaded Takad villages again, last Monday, and wiped out all the inhabitants before razing the villages.
“SKIPfo believes that if it were other ethnic nationalities murdering Fulani at will as it is done us, the governor would have since taken very aggressive measures to stamp out the evil..
“After collecting enough documentary evidence, and studying all incriminating information at our disposal, we are therefore holding His Excellency, Governor Mukhtar Ramalan Yero responsible for the genocide, against the Takad, of Southern Kaduna people. “Our lawyers, and their friends are taking the governor to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague very soon for aiding and abetting genocide, against the Takad and Southern Kaduna people.“We hope to get him extradited even if after he has left office, so that he faces justice”.