Kajuru Killings: Kaduna Group Alleges Plot to Arrest Odinkalu

The Adara Development Association (ADA), an umbrella body for
the Adara ethnic nationality in Kajuru and Kachia Local Government
Areas of Kaduna State, has said it has credible information about
alleged plans by the state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, to trump up
false charges against Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, a former Chairman of
the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Thisday reports

This allegation was contained in a statement issued by the
association yesterday in Kaduna.

The association also decried the incessant killings bedeviling
Kajuru and other parts of Southern Kaduna.

Some groups and persons, including Odinkalu, had in February
this year, faulted el-Rufai, who, on the eve of the botched
presidential election on February 16, announced that 66 Fulani were
killed in an attack.

Odinkalu then described the governor’s claimed as “a lie”.

The statement jointly signed by the National Vice President and
Assistant National Secretary of ADA, James Auta and Luka Waziri
respectively, said: “There is credible information that the Kaduna
State governor intends to trump up charges against a former
Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof Chidi
Anselm Odinkalu, merely for speaking against the government’s
handling of the security situation in Kajuru.

“We therefore strongly demand that the state government desists
from using state apparatus as a means of settling whatever
perceived scores it may have.”

They maintained that the incessant spate of killings was caused
by the governor’s pronouncement that 66 Fulani people were killed,
adding that the governor later increased the figure to 130.

The group condemned the indiscriminate arrests of Adara people
and their leaders, and demanded for their released.

“Since then, there have been numerous arrests, and where
preliminary investigation does not even remotely link suspects
to
the incident, they are still detained.

“Victims and activists who have lend their voices in condemning
the arbitrary handling of the arrests are either threatened with
arrests or prosecution.

“Twenty three Adara children, most of whom are below 18 years,
have been in prison custody since September 2018 without trial even
when prisons should not even accept underage children. “This is in
addition to our nine chiefs and elders that have been locked up
without any justifiable reason.

“Officials of Adara Development Association who are not in
prison are now being hunted. These include Luka Waziri, Sebastine
Barde, James Auta, Bitrus Maiwando and Augustine Jankaro who are
being sought to be arrested merely by reason of their identities
and affiliations,” the statement said.