The Kaduna State Commissioner of Police, Ahmad Abdurrahman, has declined to confirm the figures announced by Governor Nasir El-Rufai as the number of people killed in Kajuru Local Government of Kaduna State.
According to the CP, the police are still investigating and won’t quote or confirm any figure until their probe is concluded.
Governor El-Rufai first announced last week that 66 people were killed by “criminal elements” in various dispersed hamlets in Kajuru Local Government. The army also confirmed the 66 deaths but earlier this week in Abuja, the governor said the figures has risen to 130.
The claims by the governor has been disputed by many including human right lawyer Chidi Odinkalu and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), amongst others.
But on Thursday the Kaduna State Police Commissioner told Journalists he can neither confirmed nor denied the governor’s figures but said the police was not involved in arriving at both figures.
He said, “Right now, if the governor tells you even 200, he is just quoting figures. It may be more than that or less than that. For example, the areas you have visited where we were told that 36 bodies were buried, It was not under the purview of the security at the beginning of the investigation until when the Fulani victims themselves came out crying after we have secured all the places with our military counterpart. They now approach the military that come and escort us to come and bury our relations. That was when it was uncovered.”
“As I told the governor himself, I said figures in a crisis of this magnitude should be left until all investigations have been finished. All those areas we are getting information are covered. You cannot come up with a figure. You will come and say a figure and later you have to come and say it again. And this is what is happening As far as police is concerned we are investigating and investigation is still at embryonic stage. By the time we reach all areas…as I’m talking to you now, my men are still in the bush, plus SEMA and other CSOs.
“That’s why professionally, we don’t come out with figures until when we are sure and concluded our investigation. So, you see that there is no reason to say this one said this figure or that one said this figure,” he said.
According to the CP, the troubled communities are now in a post-crisis period warning that ‘nobody should stampede investigation.’
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