By; AMOS TAUNA, Kaduna
Chairman of Zango Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Mr Francis Sani Zimbo has said the council and community stakeholders are leaving no stone unturned towards addressing the renewed attacks on residents in the affected areas with a view to finding lasting solutions.
Speaking while addressing newsmen in Zonkwa on Tuesday, the council chairman explained that stakeholders in the local government are taking necessary steps in ensuring that the killings come to an end and create a conducive atmosphere for development to flourish and the sustenance of peaceful coexistence.
According to him, “The council is working with community structures like the community development associations, religious and community leaders to find lasting solutions to the security challenges in the affected areas with a view to ensure sanity for people to go about their legitimate businesses.”
He lamented that the lingering insecurity had brought all development initiatives to a standstill, saying that as it, people hardly go to farm or go for business activities for fear of the unknown, stressing that these are things they are trying to make people understand in order to live a harmonious life.
He further lamented, “The situation has drastically affected agricultural production; people no longer go to the farm for fear of being killed. Just two weeks ago, some people were killed in their farmlands. Not in their houses. In their farmlands with hoes in their hands.”
According to him, houses are being destroyed, food reserves burnt, agricultural activities brought to abrupt halt. Intergroup relations tainted with suspicion, adding that it is not good looking at how many grow up where people of different ethnic groups live together without any problem in the past.
The council chairman lamented that resources that would have been used to bring about development in the local government were being channeled into addressing the fallouts of the crises.
He added that presently, more than 20 survivors of the attacks receiving treatment at Sir Patrick Ibrahim Yakowa Memorial Hospital, Kafanchan and Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos, saying that the victims are in dire need of help in order to come back to life.
He stressed that those whose houses and food items were destroyed by the attackers also need immediate help to rebuild their lives, appealing to the federal and Kaduna governments to come to their aid to cushion the effect of their present predicaments.
