Some Southern Kaduna communities have accused the soldiers, who were deployed in the areas for security after the April post-election violence, of brutalising the residents.
The residents, who now live in fear, and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) complained that the soldiers have also imposed a false curfew on the communities.
CAN Chairman in Jaba Local Government Area, Rev. Gambo Na’Allah, told reporters in Kwoi that soldiers drafted to secure the area are brutalising the residents and have imposed an 8pm till dawn curfew on Southern Kaduna.
Speaking through CAN Secretary, Rev. Aminu Weyham, Na’Allah noted that the soldiers have become a law unto themselves, defying the plea of constituted authorities.
Na’Allah said: “We welcome the deployment of soldiers to Kwoi and other parts of Southern Kaduna. But these soldiers have become a big problem here. By 8pm, they don’t allow anyone outside.
“They don’t show respect for anyone. They beat up and abuse elders and don’t have any regard for traditional authority and council officials.
“We have written series of complaints to the military authority, but the soldiers seem to defy control. Many places here are suffering as a result. We have never been informed of any curfew here by the government, because we live in peace.
“We cannot understand why soldiers, who are supposed to protect us, are turning their guns at us. The other time that Bitaro (a village about seven kilometres away) was attacked for about two hours and four people killed, none of the soldiers came out. It was our youths that pursued the invaders and arrested them some weeks later.”
Bishop Paul Zamani, the Anglican Bishop of Kwoi Diocese; Rev. Sunday Marion Rock; Rev. Simon Haruna, Chairman, Nasiha Baptist Association; and Pastor Jonathan Dasaro, Chairman, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria in Jaba Local Government Area, also complained about the highhandedness of the soldiers.
Two Kaduna-based reporters - Luka Binniyat of Vanguard and Jacob Zango of Kaduna State Television - witnessed the soldiers’ brutality when they visited Kafanchan to investigate the report.
They were arrested by nine soldiers, led by a lieutenant without a name tag, at 9.10pm and ordered to sit in muddy waters with about 50 others.
The “offenders” were punished for what the soldiers called a violation of the curfew imposed on the area.
Binniyat told The Nation that those arrested were stopped at gun point by the soldiers on the same day CAN addressed reporters on the soldiers’ activities.
He said: “They (soldiers) were under the command of a lieutenant, whose identity could not be established that night, at the Timber Shade Motor Park, in Kafanchan, about 40kilometres from Kwoi.
“Despite our identities, the soldiers insisted we must be punished for defying a ‘curfew’.
“We were ordered to sit in muddy waters with about 50 others, some very respectable looking men and women...”
The Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Media and Publicity, Reuben Buhari, denied the imposition of a curfew in any part of the state.
He said: “There is nowhere in Kaduna State that a curfew has been imposed. We are already experiencing an improvement in peace and reconciliation.”
via The Nation
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