Troops of
Operation Safe Haven (OPSH) were yesterday deployed in Kaura, Zangon Kataf,
Jema’a and Sanga local councils in southern Kaduna.
The Commander
of the 4 Battalion in charge of the area, Lt. Col. Hassan Muhammad Bello
disclosed this.
The
commander explained that troops of 1 Battalion, which have been maintaining
security in the area in the past six years, would now be engaged in assignments
outside the country.
The troops
were earlier deployed in Plateau and parts of Bauchi and Kaduna states to
maintain order.
Bello told
the OPSH Commander, Major General Rogers Nicholas, that the security challenges
in southern Kaduna were similar to those in Plateau State.
“The crises
usually are on issues of farmers and herders, cattle rustling as well as armed
banditry,” he said.
Nicholas
told community leaders in the area that his men would do everything possible to
maintain the peace.
He said: “We
are not politicians or religious bigots, but are here to sustain the peace and
we must learn to work together, tolerate and respect one another.”
Meanwhile, a
coalition of groups from the Middle Belt yesterday dissociated themselves from
any political or socio-cultural affinity with the core north.
A statement
by the Youth President of Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU), Mr. Nasiru
Jagaba read the statement on behalf of the Middle Belt region.
The groups,
which condemned the declaration by Arewa youths that the Igbo should vacate the
north before October 1, said nobody in the northern part of the country has the
mandate to speak for us.
Jagaba said:
“We the people of Middle Belt of Nigeria, comprising Kwara, Kogi, Benue,
Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba, Niger, Federal Capital Teritory (FCT), Abuja, as
well as the southern parts of Adamawa, Kaduna, Kebbi, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe and
Borno States, wish to lend our united voice behind the Middle-belt Forum (MBF)
and other affiliate groups.
“We are
against the declaration by the Arewa youths and their sponsors. The people of
the Middle-Belt wish to let the world know that we are not part of Northern
Nigeria and nobody in that part has the mandate to speak for us.”
He said the
Federal Government has created distrust by failing to deal with the
Hausa-Fulani herdsmen, who have turned the Middle Belt into a theatre of war.
The groups
also condemned the support by some northern leaders to the “misguided” Arewa
youths.
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