John Shiklam in Kaduna

The Adara Development Association (ADA) has raised the alarm over renewed activities of bandits terrorising its communities in Kachia and Kajuru Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

In a statement issued yesterday and signed by its Publicity Secretary, Livinus  Jatau, the group called on the government to take urgent steps to contain the situation.

The association recalled that the “systematic attacks, siege, and ethnic cleansing of Adara land began in 2016” during the administration of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai.

According to Jatau, during that period, “Adara communities came under persistent, coordinated assaults that resulted in the destruction, displacement, widespread killings, kidnappings, including the abduction and brutal killing of the paramount ruler, the Agom Adara, Dr. Raphael Galadima.

The association noted that the coming of Governor Uba Sani “has brought some reliefs to the communities as displaced villagers returned home, resumed farming, and began rebuilding their lives.”

However, the statement lamented that “in recent months, violence has returned in a highly coordinated and brutal form.”

According to Jatau, communities are again being attacked, and people are either being killed or abducted, adding that “most farmers in affected communities cannot access their farmlands.

“Innocent citizens are being killed and abducted, women are being raped, entire communities wiped out, and others are being taken over by bandits.”

Jatau said, a number of schools, health centres, and markets had also been destroyed by the bandits.

The statement called on the federal and Kaduna State Governments to take “decisive action to stop the killings by  establishing a permanent, well-equipped military outposts in all vulnerable areas.

ADA also accused the El-Rufai administration of “balkanising the Adara Chiefdom” and unjustly detaining Adara leaders, and appealed to Governor Sani to address the injustice by restoring the First-Class status of the Adara Chiefdom.

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