Southern Kaduna crisis not ethnic cleansing – Commander

By AbdulGafar Alabelewe, Kaduna

The Commander of Operation Safe Haven Major General Chukwuemeka Okonkwo has denied the killings in Southern Kaduna as ethnic cleansing.

The killing, he said, were activities of criminal elements on both sides.

Governor Nasir El Rufai, on his part, said his administration has done everything within its constitutional powers to bring peace in Southern Kaduna and all parts of the state for over five years.

Okonkwo and El-Rufai spoke at a high level security meeting at the council chambers of Government House Kaduna on Tuesday.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, Okonkwo said: ‘’What we have were attacks on some communities and reprisal attacks.’’

According to him, both sides of the conflict have been attacking each other but ‘’the reports are not balanced. Perhaps, most of the media houses don’t know, both sides are actually involved.

’You have Kataf youths, Fulani militias and the criminal elements of both sides.

“Some people are also leveraging on the security situation to perpetuate their criminal activities, aside communities involved in the crisis,’’ Okonkwo added.

The commander said ‘’any incident is enough to spark off crisis in that area, they have been lingering disputes and animosities, banditry and cattle rustling there.’’

The commander promised that the military and other security agents will re-strategise and “deploy as much as possible to shorten our response time.’’

He assured there is going to be improvement because ‘’we have reviewed our operations. We are going to close ranks. We are going to be more robust in the days to come.’’

He said contrary to allegations the military and other security agents were not doing enough to contain the attacks, he argued that ‘’if one or two attacks took place, three were prevented.’’

The commander said that although there have been some gaps in their operations, he listed difficulty of the terrain and limited manpower as constraints, adding that in spite of those challenges, they are committed to bringing peace in the area.

– The Nation