Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has lambasted those criticizing him over the killings in Kajuru Local Government Area, where he alleged that 66 people were murdered.

A statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said;

“The Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has visited the scenes of the Kajuru killings. The governor was accompanied on the trip by Maj. Gen. Faruk Yahaya, GOC 1 Division of the Nigerian Army; Air Cmdr. I. Sani of the Nigerian Air Force; Police Commissioner, Ahmad Abdurrahman and the state Director of the DSS, A.I. Koya; while the chairman of Kajuru Local Government Area, Cafra Caino, also joined the governor on the visit.

“The Kaduna State Government notes the concerted and apparently coordinated efforts by bigoted busybodies to deny the Kajuru killings, or to minimise the casualty figures, and the specious arguments being deployed in this despicable quest. The Kaduna State Government condemns in the strongest terms attempts to politicise the killings.”

“Only irresponsible and insensitive people can recklessly dismiss the deaths of members of a community with whom they have no contact. Private individuals and unelected actors cannot be allowed to reduce weighty matters of state security to the province of their limited networks, inexperienced lenses and narrow agendas.”

“The government of a state cannot be detained by parochial, ethno-religious, partisan or electoral calculations from doing its duty to provide security, confirm incidents of security breaches, take steps to reassure affected communities and ensure that perpetrators are arrested and brought to justice.”