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By Nasir Kura
Governor Nasir AhmedEl-Rufai of Kaduna state said on Tuesday that the death toll as a result of the communal clash in the Kajuru local government of the state has risen to 130 as against the 66 earlier reported.
The governor said this while addressing State House correspondents after a security meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja
“The last report we got is that over 130 people were killed not even 66 and the Fulani leaders have provided the names of all these people. We have the list, we can release it to the Press and I don’t want to be gross but we can release pictures of the people killed and how soldiers have to be there to help bury them, two days after they were killed because the bodies were decomposing.
The governor said those doubting casualty figures released by the state government on the carnage “are grossly irresponsible.”
“I think that anybody that is still questioning whether these attacks took place or not is being grossly irresponsible. I think as the governor of the state, and everyone knows me and my records of public service. I would not be irresponsible enough to stand before the media and say something has happened that has not happened. I don’t work based on telephone calls for rumours.
“As governor of the state, the first thing I receive every morning is a security briefing on what happens in the last 24 hours. That is the first thing I read and I ask questions and I work on the basis of security briefings from the experts, the Garrison Commander, the commissioner of police, the head of the airforce. We have every security agency in Kaduna state and they send me briefings including the DSS. I work only on that basis.
“Anybody that wants to contradict what I said should have superior information and it is impossible for you other than the president of the country to have superior information that I have about my state. So, people are being grossly irresponsible, I don’t know what their agenda is. But I know there is a prevailing narrative in the Nigerian media that only certain lives are more important than others.,” he said.
The governor said despite the clash, the state was ready for the forthcoming elections scheduled for Saturday, February 23, 2019.
He said soldiers would be deployed to areas known for constant ethnic tensions and violence during the polls.
“In Kaduna state, we requested for enhanced military presence in particular locations that are either afflicted by rural banditry, these are the local government of Birnin-Gwari/Giwa Angchukwu and areas where there has been a history of either electoral violence or ethno-religious intolerance,” he said.
