This piece will be disturbing but that is not a goal in itself.
Here is a real life story of an area where peaceful citizens have
consistently been hacked to death time and again, episode after the
other like macabre scenes in a horror movie and in the face of a
sitting government.
While humans slept on Monday 11 May, 2020 blood thirsty men went
into Gona Rogo Community in Kajuru, Kaduna State and killed
seventeen people- men, women and youths were killed. Toddlers and
suckling babies were not spared. They were hacked, sawn down or
blown in smithrens… out of life.This is more than an attack on a
community. It is not just an act of terror but a horrific testimony
of how murderous attacks have formed a morbid lifestyle in Kaduna ,
Plateau, Zamfara, Benue, Katsina and indeed most states of
Nigeria.
Our collective humanity is being targeted. It is up to all of us
to respond in righteous indignation. Every person of conscience
should lend voice in condemning these killings and call for justice
to take its cause.Impunity must never be empowered anywhere across
the length and breadth of our country.
We have become a country of selective amnesia to violence,
always discounting of the inherent worth of human lives. The very
poor sanitary state of our mortuaries speak of how quickly people
lose their dignity the moment they breathe their last. This same
response is what we give to the death and maiming of thousands of
Nigerians across the country who may be lucky to form a flash in
the news for a moment but fade as quickly as the bodies are covered
beneath mounds of soil. If we do not learn to humanize the memory
and worth of our citizens, if we do not give them dignity by
placing a demand on government and the Law to acknowledge their
value in life as in death, we will never be able to access the
depletion in the worth of human life in Nigeria. To be sure: Any
government that does not acknowledge the worth of one human life,
will excuse the death of thousands.
THE KILLING FIELD IN KADUNA.
In our part of the world, we pray ‘Allah ka sa mu rabu da duniya
lafiya’ (May we severe from mortal existence (the world) in peace).
It’s the kind of prayer you make in hope that you do not end up
being caught up in the things you do not understand. That you do
not pay for who you are. That your inherent human dignity does not
dissolve into a figure or grim statistic.
In our country, this kind of story is becoming normal. It is at
best another news feature and at worst a subject of political
debate. Truth be told, very few media houses report these kinds of
news- not if they seek adverts.
This is about people. Real. Living. Breathing. People. They went
to bed in hope for tomorrow but tomorrow never came.Killed in the
nastiest of fashion, they were poured in mass graves. The graves
may not have their names neither would it have their epitaph but
their families will never forget the sounds of bullet that
richocheted nor the clamp of matchetes on human bodies that
competed with the shrill, pitched sounds of their dying loved
ones.No. They are not numbers. Numbers do not feel nor bleed. They
do not weep neither do they have their hope cut short.
In the mass grave dug for the killings of 11 May, 2020 were
Jonathan Yakubu (40), Sheba Yakubu(32) ,Patience Yakubu(13),
Revelation Yakubu (6) and
Rejoice Yakubu (4). What this means is that an entire family was
wiped out in one fell swoop. A human lineage is lost.
There were Paul Bawa (27) and his wife, Rahila Bawa (25), both
husband and wife are gone. There were also Asanalo Magaji (32) and
Yayo Magaji (13). Two members of a family are no more. Mailafia
Dalhatu (60), Yaro Dalhatu (56) Saratu Dalhatu (45) and Blessing
Yari (14) belonged in one family.Two brothers, wife and
granddaughter have perished.
Popular Teacher (17) was gunned down to death. John Paul (6) was
hacked to death. Sarauniya Lucky (25) was found dead with her 3-
month baby cuddled in her arms.
That could have been me, or you or just anyone. The pain and the
fear are beyond words but we can determine that our citizens and
indeed all of us must never live in fear for our lives or in
perpetual worry of murderous night.
EVEN BABIES WERE NOT SPARED.
Babies have been killed. They were never in the way of
anyone.Let that simmer and sink for a moment. What did those
precious babies do? I was at one of the hospitals to visit the
patients. Nothing prepares anyone for the spectacle that bears
witness to the devaluation, dehumanization, denigration and
desensitization in the conscience of man like what remains of the
patients in those hospitals. Here are a few:Isaiah Jonathan is 13.
He has a deep cut on his right hand. His father and mother and two
older siblings were killed. He is yet to be told.
Zipporah Jonathan is 8 years old. She has a deep cut on her
right hand. Her parents and two older siblings were killed but she
does not know yet. She is also a sister to a 3 -month old baby who
was grazed by a bullet in the attack but miraculously survived.
Evelyn Magaji’s case is beyond critical. The 3- year old lost
her family members including her mother in the attack. Her father
lies critically ill at St. Gerard’s hospital. The wound on her head
is so deep it reveals a white portion. Her eyes are now inverted
blank stares. 10- year old faith has a deep cut across the
front-right side of her head. Her mom is dead but she has not been
told. She suffers panic attacks that are not unrelated to the
trauma of the incident. There is Mama Markus. Mama is about 80yrs.
Her left hand is in a sling. Mama sustained a gun shot wound on her
left shoulder. Her daughter in-law, Sauraniya Markus was killed,
leaving behind a 5-day old baby.
These children have paid the heaviest price of government’s
failure to stop these killings. How did we sink so low as not to
remember that we have a collective responsibility for the
protection of children? The world already whirs and dizzies from
the horrors of a pandemic.It is a shame, a big shame that while
animal species preserve their young fiercely and jealously for
continuity, human beings have failed to exclude children from the
nadir of suffering and the horrors that come with these mindless
killings.
How can anyone look into the vacant, terrified eyes of a child
only to respond with a matchete or bullet? Common! even wars have
rules of engagement. We have a duty to remember that of all the
things that can kill our humanity, the most potent is our loss of
rage against the murder and violation of children. Fly high little
angels …This world was not worthy of you…Fly into a home where
there is no night.
GOVERNMENT & WHY THE KILLINGS KNOW NO END.
The killings have not stopped. In Kauru, Godogodo, Attakad areas
of Southern Kaduna, the stories of murder have remained the same.
Indeed, the story of Southern Kaduna is the story of Benue,
Plateau, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger or Taraba. Shortly after the
May,2020 killings in Gonan Rogo, the President of Nigeria was
widely reported as condemning the ‘revenge’ killings in Kaduna. In
a statement signed by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, the President
‘…condemned the wave of attacks and counterattacks among Fulani and
Adara communities of Kajuru local government. ‘ He said ‘… the
recourse to self help instead of the Law of the land was the real
cause of the killings and counter killings between the two
communities’.
The reaction by the President is deeply troubling. Who were
those who began the killings and who are those taking out reprisals
and where is the government when all of these are happening? We
certainly have a crime situation here that flies in the face of a
circuitous talk of condemnation. What has condemnation done in
Zamfara,Niger, Benue, Plateau or Katsina? When did these killers
become so above the Law that police would receive distress calls
and head in the opposite direction? The weapons used for these
attacks are clearly too sophisticated and unaffordable to the
ragtag trained army that carry out these attacks on our citizens.
Why have we never received a report on government’s action against
the sponsors of these violence? Is there a political economy to
these killings ? Who may be the beneficiaries? Why would Governor
Elrufai be more invested in the Kano-Kaduna border road blocks for
instance and not channel energies on Kajuru, Birningwari or the
hospitals where these victims lie critical?
The killings across the country would know no end except the
government follows the constitutional procedure of what ranks
highest: security and the welfare of the people. For if government
speaks in the tough eloquence and ecstasy of a paper tiger, if it
pours in a million condemnations but fail to go after the real
perpetrators, if they take to the stakes security votes and enable
narratives of why the killings occur but fail to bring the sponsors
and perpetrators of these violence to justice, the blood bath will
never cease.
Ballason is the C.E.O. House of Justice &
Executive Director, Molluma Medico-Legal Center, Kaduna. She may be
reached at mcmedicallaw@gmail.com
This piece will be disturbing but that is not a goal in itself.
Here is a real life story of an area where peaceful citizens have
consistently been hacked to death time and again, episode after the
other like macabre scenes in a horror movie and in the face of a
sitting government.
While humans slept on Monday 11 May, 2020 blood thirsty men went
into Gona Rogo Community in Kajuru, Kaduna State and killed
seventeen people- men, women and youths were killed. Toddlers and
suckling babies were not spared. They were hacked, sawn down or
blown in smithrens… out of life.This is more than an attack on a
community. It is not just an act of terror but a horrific testimony
of how murderous attacks have formed a morbid lifestyle in Kaduna ,
Plateau, Zamfara, Benue, Katsina and indeed most states of
Nigeria.
Our collective humanity is being targeted. It is up to all of us
to respond in righteous indignation. Every person of conscience
should lend voice in condemning these killings and call for justice
to take its cause.Impunity must never be empowered anywhere across
the length and breadth of our country.
We have become a country of selective amnesia to violence,
always discounting of the inherent worth of human lives. The very
poor sanitary state of our mortuaries speak of how quickly people
lose their dignity the moment they breathe their last. This same
response is what we give to the death and maiming of thousands of
Nigerians across the country who may be lucky to form a flash in
the news for a moment but fade as quickly as the bodies are covered
beneath mounds of soil. If we do not learn to humanize the memory
and worth of our citizens, if we do not give them dignity by
placing a demand on government and the Law to acknowledge their
value in life as in death, we will never be able to access the
depletion in the worth of human life in Nigeria. To be sure: Any
government that does not acknowledge the worth of one human life,
will excuse the death of thousands.
THE KILLING FIELD IN KADUNA.
In our part of the world, we pray ‘Allah ka sa mu rabu da duniya
lafiya’ (May we severe from mortal existence (the world) in peace).
It’s the kind of prayer you make in hope that you do not end up
being caught up in the things you do not understand. That you do
not pay for who you are. That your inherent human dignity does not
dissolve into a figure or grim statistic.
In our country, this kind of story is becoming normal. It is at
best another news feature and at worst a subject of political
debate. Truth be told, very few media houses report these kinds of
news- not if they seek adverts.
This is about people. Real. Living. Breathing. People. They went
to bed in hope for tomorrow but tomorrow never came.Killed in the
nastiest of fashion, they were poured in mass graves. The graves
may not have their names neither would it have their epitaph but
their families will never forget the sounds of bullet that
richocheted nor the clamp of matchetes on human bodies that
competed with the shrill, pitched sounds of their dying loved
ones.No. They are not numbers. Numbers do not feel nor bleed. They
do not weep neither do they have their hope cut short.
In the mass grave dug for the killings of 11 May, 2020 were
Jonathan Yakubu (40), Sheba Yakubu(32) ,Patience Yakubu(13),
Revelation Yakubu (6) and
Rejoice Yakubu (4). What this means is that an entire family was
wiped out in one fell swoop. A human lineage is lost.
There were Paul Bawa (27) and his wife, Rahila Bawa (25), both
husband and wife are gone. There were also Asanalo Magaji (32) and
Yayo Magaji (13). Two members of a family are no more. Mailafia
Dalhatu (60), Yaro Dalhatu (56) Saratu Dalhatu (45) and Blessing
Yari (14) belonged in one family.Two brothers, wife and
granddaughter have perished.
Popular Teacher (17) was gunned down to death. John Paul (6) was
hacked to death. Sarauniya Lucky (25) was found dead with her 3-
month baby cuddled in her arms.
That could have been me, or you or just anyone. The pain and the
fear are beyond words but we can determine that our citizens and
indeed all of us must never live in fear for our lives or in
perpetual worry of murderous night.
EVEN BABIES WERE NOT SPARED.
Babies have been killed. They were never in the way of
anyone.Let that simmer and sink for a moment. What did those
precious babies do? I was at one of the hospitals to visit the
patients. Nothing prepares anyone for the spectacle that bears
witness to the devaluation, dehumanization, denigration and
desensitization in the conscience of man like what remains of the
patients in those hospitals. Here are a few:Isaiah Jonathan is 13.
He has a deep cut on his right hand. His father and mother and two
older siblings were killed. He is yet to be told.
Zipporah Jonathan is 8 years old. She has a deep cut on her
right hand. Her parents and two older siblings were killed but she
does not know yet. She is also a sister to a 3 -month old baby who
was grazed by a bullet in the attack but miraculously survived.
Evelyn Magaji’s case is beyond critical. The 3- year old lost
her family members including her mother in the attack. Her father
lies critically ill at St. Gerard’s hospital. The wound on her head
is so deep it reveals a white portion. Her eyes are now inverted
blank stares. 10- year old faith has a deep cut across the
front-right side of her head. Her mom is dead but she has not been
told. She suffers panic attacks that are not unrelated to the
trauma of the incident. There is Mama Markus. Mama is about 80yrs.
Her left hand is in a sling. Mama sustained a gun shot wound on her
left shoulder. Her daughter in-law, Sauraniya Markus was killed,
leaving behind a 5-day old baby.
These children have paid the heaviest price of government’s
failure to stop these killings. How did we sink so low as not to
remember that we have a collective responsibility for the
protection of children? The world already whirs and dizzies from
the horrors of a pandemic.It is a shame, a big shame that while
animal species preserve their young fiercely and jealously for
continuity, human beings have failed to exclude children from the
nadir of suffering and the horrors that come with these mindless
killings.
How can anyone look into the vacant, terrified eyes of a child
only to respond with a matchete or bullet? Common! even wars have
rules of engagement. We have a duty to remember that of all the
things that can kill our humanity, the most potent is our loss of
rage against the murder and violation of children. Fly high little
angels …This world was not worthy of you…Fly into a home where
there is no night.
GOVERNMENT & WHY THE KILLINGS KNOW NO END.
The killings have not stopped. In Kauru, Godogodo, Attakad areas
of Southern Kaduna, the stories of murder have remained the same.
Indeed, the story of Southern Kaduna is the story of Benue,
Plateau, Katsina, Zamfara, Niger or Taraba. Shortly after the
May,2020 killings in Gonan Rogo, the President of Nigeria was
widely reported as condemning the ‘revenge’ killings in Kaduna. In
a statement signed by his spokesperson, Garba Shehu, the President
‘…condemned the wave of attacks and counterattacks among Fulani and
Adara communities of Kajuru local government. ‘ He said ‘… the
recourse to self help instead of the Law of the land was the real
cause of the killings and counter killings between the two
communities’.
The reaction by the President is deeply troubling. Who were
those who began the killings and who are those taking out reprisals
and where is the government when all of these are happening? We
certainly have a crime situation here that flies in the face of a
circuitous talk of condemnation. What has condemnation done in
Zamfara,Niger, Benue, Plateau or Katsina? When did these killers
become so above the Law that police would receive distress calls
and head in the opposite direction? The weapons used for these
attacks are clearly too sophisticated and unaffordable to the
ragtag trained army that carry out these attacks on our citizens.
Why have we never received a report on government’s action against
the sponsors of these violence? Is there a political economy to
these killings ? Who may be the beneficiaries? Why would Governor
Elrufai be more invested in the Kano-Kaduna border road blocks for
instance and not channel energies on Kajuru, Birningwari or the
hospitals where these victims lie critical?
The killings across the country would know no end except the
government follows the constitutional procedure of what ranks
highest: security and the welfare of the people. For if government
speaks in the tough eloquence and ecstasy of a paper tiger, if it
pours in a million condemnations but fail to go after the real
perpetrators, if they take to the stakes security votes and enable
narratives of why the killings occur but fail to bring the sponsors
and perpetrators of these violence to justice, the blood bath will
never cease.
Ballason is the C.E.O. House of Justice &
Executive Director, Molluma Medico-Legal Center, Kaduna. She may be
reached at mcmedicallaw@gmail.com