FG urges religious leaders to stay out of crisis

In the statement, signed by his Press Secretary, Ehisienmen Osaigbovo, the Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazzau, urged religious leaders and other Nigerians to stop fuelling the crisis, Vanguard reports.

“True religious leaders do not fan the embers of hate, but ensure that communities live in peace and harmony," he said.

Rather, he encouraged everyone to work with the government in order to put an end to the issue.

“Economic growth and development will remain a mirage for Nigeria, with over 500 ethnic groups and multiple religions, unless we resolve to live amicably as a people with a common destiny,” he said.

Dambazzau also advised people to stop attaching religion to the crisis.

The statement read: "He observed that this has become necessary following insinuations that the criminal violence in Southern Kaduna has some religious interpretation.

He said there are people who are always looking for ways to further create division along religious or ethnic fault lines for their selfish interest, with the aim of creating instability in our internal security.

Dambazau said criminals, who perpetrate violence against innocent, law-abiding citizens, do not discriminate along religious and ethnic lines, citing examples of how communities in Zamfara, Katsina, Taraba, Enugu, Lagos and Niger were victimized by those violent criminals.

He noted that a criminal should be treated as such, whether he is involved in armed robbery, drug trafficking, homicide or cattle rustling, and that people should avoid honouring criminals with religious or ethnic attachment.

He advised opinion and religious leaders to refrain from giving the crisis between herdsmen and sedentary farmers in Southern Kaduna a religious connotation, rather attention should be focused on the real enemies of our Society, who illegally acquire weapons to terrorize Christian and Muslim communities alike.”

Despite the minister's claims that these attacks are not religious, the Catholic Archdiocese of Kafanchan says otherwise.

The Cable reports that Ibrahim Yakubu, vicar-general of the diocese has released a statement revealing the number of people killed by suspected herdsmen, whom he calls, "self styled Jihadists."

"Four local government areas have been attacked, with 808 people killed and 1,422 houses, 16 Churches, 19 shops, and one primary school destroyed.

The herdsmen and their ilk turned the towns into killing fields and killed mostly women, children and the elderly who couldn’t run for cover.

The level of barbarity was such that pregnant women got their wombs blown out and massacred before their children. And these innocent children were not spared either.

This level of viciousness was never witnessed even in the brutal tyranny and regime of Adolf Hitler. What is most intriguing is the level of sophistication of weapons; Ak 47, Machine Guns and many other deadly instruments of death were freely.

The viciousness of these self styled Jihadists sends shivers into the spines of our traumatized people,” the statement read.

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He has called on Southern Kaduna indigenes to continue to pray for help.