Elder statesman and former military governor of Rivers State, Major General Zamani Lekwot (retd) on Tuesday said immediate past governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai’s negative agenda of Islamisation left the state more divided on ethnic, religious lines.
In a chat with Arise TV which was monitored by QUEST TIMES, Lekwot who is the chairman of the Southern Kaduna Elders Forum (SKEF) said the people of the state irrespective of their religious beliefs lived in peace and harmony until El-Rufai assumed office as Governor in 2015.
His words “Southern Kaduna citizens have lived in peace over the years. We managed our differences with other Nigerians who have found it necessary to come and live with us. Things were going well until Nasir El-Rufai emerged as governor with an agenda to divide the state and in a recent clip, he confessed that his agenda was to Islamise Southern Kaduna”.
Speaking on the crisis in Southern Kaduna, Lekwot said El-Rufai’s payment to bandits to stop killings in the area worsened the situation.
“Fortunately for us, religion is not an issue because Islam and Christianity, even on the world plane are the two closest religions. For El-Rufai to come with this type of negative agenda was a big surprise. He decided to have nothing to do with Southern Kaduna. What crime did we commit? No crime at all”.
“He also confessed that even at the national level, they used bandits to win elections in 2015. When he assumed office as Governor, he also confessed that he knew where the bandits came from”.
“He went to where they were to pay them money to stop killing Southern Kaduna people which made the situation worse. In the end, he left the state more divided on tribal and religious lines”.