The President, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Rev. Dr. Samson O. A. Ayokunle, has suggested a round table discussion of Southern Kaduna stakeholders and a pledge of cooperation rather than confrontation in finding solutions to the crisis in the region.
He said there was no need watching people engage in reprisal attacks without making both sides responsible for taking laws into their hands, stressing.
“We would be guilty of legitimizing criminality. Whoever attacks first and whoever is doing reprisal are both criminals that must be made to face the wrath of the law.”
In an address presented to governor Nasir El-Rufai while on a visit on the continuous killings in Kaduna State and the need to stop the killings, Rev Ayokunle said in finding a solution to the ongoing crisis, some lessons could be learned from the past in order to draw a roadmap for the future.
He said that one of the main responsibilities of leadership is problem-solving, stressing that “lt was because the state had problems and that was why the people recognized you as the right peg in the right hole and you were elected.”
Rev. Dr. Ayokunle noted that the best of the government and the security agents are not good enough saying that it would be enough and praiseworthy when the killings stop.
His address read “Sir, whenever CAN in the state and at the national level cries out against the insecurity, it is because we are tired of seeing human beings being slaughtered like animals. It is because not only our heart is bleeding, but that of God our Creator and Maker as well.”
“On many occasions, when I read of unknown gunmen and it ends there, I wonder whether it is not the duty of those governing us to make sure that the unknown gunmen are known and brought to book! When bandits, herdsmen, Boko Haram, religious fundamentalists or even, cattle rustlers strike, the people would have had the rest of mind and a firm belief in the government and security agents if they had pursued them to wherever they came from and made sure that they were brought to book.”
He explained that no bandit, gunman or cattle rustler should be allowed to strike and disappear into the thin air any longer without being pursued to his or her base for apprehension and prosecution.
The guns in the hands of criminals, he said, should be recovered, bushes should be combed through surveillance to do this.
He said technology should be deployed extensively by the security agents to apprehend the criminals in their hideouts, including the mercenaries that may be coming from outside the state.
According to him, all sources of ammunition the bandits and killers are using should be investigated and blocked.
Community healing, forgiveness and reconciliatory meetings, he said should be held, bringing different ethnic groups in communities together to chart the way forward for peace.
