Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday blamed the killings in Southern Kaduna on the reckless statements made by some religious leaders.
Speaking with journalists after the National Chairman of Jama’atul Izalatul Bid’ah wa Iqamatul Sunnah, Sheikh Abdullahi Lau, and other Izala leaders paid him a visit, El-Rufai said, “they received briefings from the Commissioner of Internal Security as well as the Deputy Governor.”
He said, “We also solicited their support and prayers to see the end of this crisis because we are of the strong view that at the bottom of this crisis are the reckless statements of some religious leaders.
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“If religious leaders decide firmly that people should live in peace and preach that consistently, it will lead to peaceful coexistence in our state.”
On the root of the Southern Kaduna killings, he said it “lies in differences in religion and ethnicity. And religious leaders can play a very unifying or divisive role. What we have witnessed in the last few years is that they have been playing a more divisive than a unifying role.”
“That is why we welcome the outreach by religious leaders and we presented them with all the facts, and for them to use the holy books to guide how they will preach to their congregations.”
