Report by Shindong Bala; Editing by Basirat Memudu
The Southern Kaduna Leadership Council says the claims made on a recent media publication that the zone requested the creation of Chiefdoms and the alteration of some other Chiefdoms’ nomenclature during Mallam Nasiru Elrufai administration is false and misleading.
A statement signed and read by Secretary of the Council, Mr. Timothy Gandu says out of the 25 indigenous Chiefdoms whose names where changed during El-Rufai’s tenure, 17 wrote memos to the committee set up by the administration against change of names and titles of their chiefs, while 7 others wrote that they did not ask for the nomenclature of their Traditional Institutions be changed, Yet, Elrufai ignored the written views of the Traditional Councils.
Mr. Timothy Gandu noted that the Council was reacting to the publication authored by One Muyiwa Adekeye, an aid to the former Governor which says that Chiefdoms, including that of Adara, requested the creation of Chiefdoms and the alteration of their Chiefdoms’ nomenclature.
He narrated that Southern Kaduna has over 56 ethnic groups across twelve LGAs, and cannot reasonably be said to have requested the creation of chiefdoms or a change of nomenclature.
“Out of 25 indigenous Chiefdoms whose names El-Rufai decided to change, 17 wrote to state that the names and titles of their chiefs should not be changed. 7 others wrote to state that they did not ask for the nomenclature of their Traditional Institutions be changed. Yet, El-Rufai ignored the written views of the Traditional Councils using his purported Chieftaincy Law reforms to legitimize his actions which were not implemented statewide. Since most of these issues are in court we refrain from preceding any further on the matter than put it starkly that Muyiwa Adekeye who hails from Kwara state has meddled enough in matters he has no locus to in.”
According to him, the arbitrary reduction of districts from 390 to just 77 across the state has rendered traditional institutions in the state ineffective in monitoring and reporting cases of insecurity particularly due to the large land sizes of the new districts in Southern Kaduna.
The Council therefore, call on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to interrogate the administration of Mallam Nasiru Elrufai and made to face a judicial inquiry for his actions and inactions while in office.
The group expressed appreciation to the present Government of Senator Uba Sani which has begun to address some of the wrongs committed by El-Rufai’s administration.
“We urged the Senator Uba Sani Administration to review all policies, laws and programmes that are non-inclusive to ensure they reflect the diverse nature of the state. We recognize and appreciate the efforts so far by His Excellency, Sen. Uba Sani, towards creating a more inclusive government and the support seen towards the establishment of the Federal University of Applied Science Kachia, the Federal Medical Centre Kafanchan, and other federal institutions in Southern Kaduna.”
The Council also extends it’s heartfelt congratulations to the Muslim ummah on this year’s Eid al-Adha celebrations and pray that Allah, accept the worship of sacrifice and grants peace, stability and progress to the entire state.
