Outsiders caused Southern Kaduna crises, Lekwot insists

An elder statesman, Gen. Zamani Lekwot (rtd.), has declared that outsiders rather than indigenes caused the security challenges in Southern Kaduna in Kaduna State.

Lewkot said this in an interview in Kafanchan, while reacting to a media report that quoted Commander of Operation Safe Haven, Maj.-Gen. Augustine Agundu, in which he accused retired and serving security officers of Southern Kaduna extraction of fueling the crises in the area.

Agundu was quoted to have said in Kafanchan at a security meeting with stakeholders that some serving and retired security officers in this area were promoting violence.

But Lekwot said that southern Kaduna people lived in different parts of the country and were not known for troublemaking, adding, “I think he might have been misquoted. This is because no general will publicly accuse fellow generals without first confronting them with the facts.

“We were not invited to any security meeting, where such an allegation was put before us. So, I think the newspapers came up with the mischievous headlines to sell their papers.

“More so, part of security officers’ job is maintaining and promoting peace. As such, it is illogical for such critical security officers either retired or serving to be the ones instigating security crises.”

He said it was wrong for anyone to accuse the people of causing or inflaming the recurring security crises in their own communities, insisting that outsiders caused the violence and security crises that bedevilled the area for ages.

“It does not make sense for anyone in the area to instigate crises that will cause the death of his people. We welcome people in our communities and associate cordially with neighbours,” he said.

Lekwot added that the community had continued to promote peaceful coexistence with its neighbours through the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SKPU) for which he was Chairman, Board of Elders.