Senate Rejects Report On Southern Kaduna Killings

The Senate on Tuesday, rejected the report of its Ad Hoc Committee on Southern Kaduna crisis over non-reflection of details and serious issues affecting the area.

The report was also turned down because it did not cover similar crises in other parts of the country as the committee was mandated.

The committee was mandated to cover all the states in the country, especially Zamfara, Kaduna, Benue, Enugu, Abia, Taraba, Nasarawa, Delta, Edo and Kano, that had recorded clashes.

But the committee visited only Kaduna and Zamfara.

The rejection came after the presentation of the report by Chairman of the committee, Sen. Kabiru Gaya, at plenary.

Gaya had told the senators that the committee recommended that those found wanting in the Kaduna crisis should be brought to book and that victims deserving compensation should be paid.

“The reason why we raised the recommendation is that most of the white papers produced during the last routine crises in Kaduna, none has been implemented,” he said.

He added that the committee also recommended that Kaduna State Government should collaborate with security agencies to embrace everybody irrespective of ethnic or religious affiliations.

“They should also set up a committee to embrace dialogue for peace to reign within Kaduna South and Kaduna State.”

The lawmaker said this was very vital because there was a kind of communication gap between the government and the committee.

But reacting to the report, Deputy President of the Senate, Mr Ike Ekweremadu, noted that the committee identified only 10 states to visit, but that the crisis and the killings existed in more than 10 states.

“This Senate must accord this issue the seriousness it deserves. The report needs to be deeper than this; the recommendation needs to reflect more of the seriousness of the matter.

“They should be given more time to do more work on this so that they will be able to show to the whole world that this senate is serious about this matter.

“To say that we have to use money for “service wide vote’’ to address this matter shows our misunderstanding of the concept of “service wide vote’’. It is not a small fund, it is tied to specifics,” Ekeremadu said.