The cleric, in a statement
yesterday, charged the government to resist the agenda of the marauders and
protect Nigerians.
The cleric condemned the
blood-curling simultaneous attacks by assailants on communities in the Bokkos
and Barkin-Ladi Local Government Areas of Plateau State on Christmas Eve.
The attacks have so far claimed
over 200 lives with hundreds of houses and farmlands burnt.
Kukah labelled the marauders as
“sons of Satan” who “opted to extinguish and snatch the light of the joy of
Christmas from thousands of people on the Plateau”.
“There is a method to this
madness,” he said in the statement sent to CHANNELS TV by his spokesman, Chris
Omotosho. “The choice of location, communities, timings, the seeming hooded
identities of the killers mask a fact: we may not know who they are, but
someone wants something from the Middle Belt. Stretch your imagination from the
emergence of the modern Nigerian state and connect the dots”.
According to the cleric, a war
is being waged against Nigeria by the enemies of the country.
“We may pretend that we are not
at war, but truly, a war is being waged against the Nigerian state and its
people. God forbid, but we could snap anytime, anywhere and for any reason,” he
said.
“By the banks of the Niger
River, on the hills of the Plateau, across the lush savannah of the middle belt,
we have sat down and wept.
“We have questions crying for
answers: Who are these killers? Where are they coming from? Who is sponsoring
them? What are their grouses and against whom? What do they want? Whom do they
want? Who are they working for? When will it all end? Why are they invincible
and invisible? Who is offering them cover?” he lamented.
Kukah further bemoaned why the
North has become “the incubator of all that is destructive? Boko Haram,
Banditry and shades of terrorism all live in our region”.
“Can we continue to believe
that there is no long-term plan to take over the reins of power of the Nigerian
state? These people want power. They want it on their own terms. They want
their own kind of Nigeria according to their ideology.
“These killings are just a
preface. These killings are no longer acts by herders and farmers over grazing
fields. No, there is more and we as a nation will do well to face this threat
before it is sunset. No evil lasts forever. The world defeated Slavery,
Apartheid, Nazism, Racism, and forms of extremism,” he said.
Kukah said rebuilding the
affected communities required more than mere physical infrastructure. “There is
need for clearer, more imagined strategies for rebuilding community cohesion
and resilience. Rebuilding hearts is more urgent than rebuilding houses,” he
said.
According to him, the military
cannot continue to suffer intelligence failure. “There is an urgent need to
re-set the national security architecture. Enough is enough,” Kukah asserted,
adding that the culture of investigation as excuses must end.
He said if investigations are
made public and rewards or punishment are carried out, then it builds
confidence.
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