The Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Kaduna State chapter, has condemned in strong terms the murder of Raymond Timothy Adia, 35, the councilorship candidate of the PDP in Pari ward, Kauru LGA of Kaduna State.

Kaduna State council elections come up on October 19, 2024.

Chairman of the Middle Belt Forum, Kaduna State chapter, Luka Binniyat, in a statement, said, “Adia was murdered alongside his brother, James, 32, on their way back home after a political event in Kisachi village on Sunday, 29th September 2024, while riding on a motorcycle.”

The chairman added that Adia, a graduate of Mass Communication, was a trader in fertilizer and allied agro-based farming inputs and had garnered popularity among locals for his generosity of spirit and community service.

According to him, “His killers did not take any of the huge sums of money found on him and his kid brother, James. Neither was the new motorcycle taken away, as bandits and robbers are wont to do.

“This, therefore, likely points to a politically motivated murder. If this stands so, then it calls for deep concern, since Southern Kaduna, which is a core part of the Middle Belt, may be sliding into a dangerous political trend that is all strange to our nature, civilization, and beliefs.”

Binniyat further explained that in November 2022, gunmen assassinated Mrs Victoria Chintex, the Women Leader of the Labour Party of Kaura LGA in Southern Kaduna, at her home in Manchok town in a crime believed to be related to her rising political profile and that of her party in Kaura LGA.

The MBF, Kaduna State chapter, urgently calls on law enforcement agencies to swing into action, fish out the murderers, and bring them to justice.

He stated, “If politics is a call to service, sacrifice, and risk-taking for community, we see no reason why anyone would kill for that role. Allowing this crime to fade away without consequences will only encourage more of such evil in the future.”

Nigerians already have terrorism and sundry crimes they are yet to tackle; Southern Kaduna, he noted, cannot add a new twist to insecurity in the land.

Binniyat opined that the way elected and appointed political office holders flaunt their questionable newfound wealth and suppress their constituents stresses that the lure of such positions seems to be getting desperate in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country.

The chairman appealed to all our members who are desirous of contesting for political offices to shun violence of any kind and play politics in the relatively tolerant and civilized ways that politics has always been played in the area in Kaduna State.

He condoled with the pregnant wife of the deceased candidate, the extended family, Pari ward, Kauru LGA, and the PDP family in the state.

Kaduna: Middle Belt forum condemns killing of councilorship candidate, brother