TheCable

The Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) says the 24-hour curfew imposed on three local governments in southern Kaduna has given opportunity to the armed herdsmen to kill more people.

On December 21, the Kaduna government declared curfew in Jema’a, Zangon-Kataf and Kaura local government areas due to the persistent killings going on there.

But in a statement on Saturday, Yakubu Kuzamani, spokesman of SOKAPU, said the victims from the herdsmen attacks had been left to die because the only government hospital in Kafanchan has been shut down due to the curfew.

“The Kafanchan general hospital, the only government hospital in the whole of Kafanchan, has been closed down since the 20th of December when the 24-hour curfew was imposed. Victims of armed herdsmen attacks have been left to either die without medical attention or visit a private hospital,” the statement read.

“Births complications, serious illness, and other medical needs are deliberately not accessible. In a curfew situation, it’s well known that essential service providers are exempted from the curfew and allowed to provide services but not in southern Kaduna.

“The killings the armed herdsmen started and could not finish are now being achieved by the promoters of the curfew through the withdrawal of medical services under the guise of curfew enforcement.

“Shops in the LGAs are running out of supplies for the people because traders are not allowed to go out of the affected LGAs to replenish their goods. Basic things, foodstuff, ingredients, and others are currently not available.

“We, in SOKAPU, are insisting that slamming a 24-hour curfew on innocent people while the armed herdsmen freely walk around is a reckless abuse of power that has no place in a democratic environment.”

Kuzamani further reiterated that the 24-hour curfew was only put in place because the southern Kaduna communities protested the killings.