National President of Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, Revd. Supo Ayokunle
My traducers acting a script, Lekwot replies
Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and other prominent Christian leaders have described the call for the execution of Gen. Zamani Lekwot, rtd., by the Sharia Council of Nigeria as an agenda to set the country ablaze and derail democracy.
National President of CAN, Rev. Supo Ayokunle; the President of ECWA, Rev. Steven Baba; southern Kaduna leaders and other Christian clerics, who were at the ECWA Goodnews Church venue of the protest and prayers session against the killings in southern Kaduna, commended the Federal Government for deploying special military force to the troubled areas.
They added that until permanent peace returns and armed Fulani herdsmen arrested and brought to book, the government’s initiative would not be taken seriously.
Ayokunle and the other protesters, who carried placards and prayed fervently for God’s intervention in Nigeria, said the Federal Government had not lived up to expectation in ending insecurity in the country.
It was unfortunate that some Muslim religious leaders are calling for the execution of Lekwot before peace returns to Kaduna, the CAN president said.
His words: “This is to tell the world that some people in this country don’t want us to live in peace.
“How can you imagine something that happened 28 years ago in Zangon Kataf and some people are calling for execution of Lekwot and others now, in the midst of crisis in southern Kaduna. Will that help in peace building?”
Besides, Baba denounced those promoting evil agenda in the country, saying “unless government stands firm to address the bloody crisis, Nigeria’s economy will continue to nosedive, because no country will come to invest and development will continue to elude the nation.”
Meanwhile, Lekwot, in an interview with newsmen, explained that those that called for his execution were playing a script from the white paper committee recently set up by the state government to review the 1992 Zangon Kataf crisis.
“Everyone would die. Nobody will live forever. Those who said what they said, will they not die? No one knows how they will die.
“What they said is a replay of a smokescreen, to hide the truth and divert attention. What is the relationship between what happened in Zangon Kataf 28 years ago and the massive killings going on in southern Kaduna and the country?” he wondered.
Reacting to the call by Muslim scholars on a revisit to his death sentence, he said his life is in the hand of God and not detractors wishing him dead.
He spoke in an interview on Sunday, in response to the call by the Supreme Council of Sharia in Nigeria that his execution and those of others found complicit in the bloody riot in Zango-Kataf, would bring lasting peace to the killings in Southern Kaduna.
Lekwot, Major James Atomic Kude, retd, and others were sentenced to death for their involvement in the Zango-Kataf riots that claimed several lives in 1992 under the Gen. Babangida military regime.
The Council had also called for the revisit of the death sentences passed on those convicted for that riot (Zango-Kataf).
Speaking to journalists shortly after the interdenominational service and indoor protest organised by the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Lekwot, a former governor of old Rivers State, said only God could determine his life and not those craving for violence under the current democratic dispensation.
President of CAN, Dr. Ayokunle, who was present at the interdenominational service/protest called for an end to the killings in Southern Kaduna and other parts of the country.
Lekwot said that all genuine religious leaders were supposed to preach peace and love, wondering why the Council was preaching hate and division in the country.
“What Nigeria need at this moment is genuine tolerance regardless of ethnic or religious affinities and not hatred” he said.
He said: “I have nothing to say. My life like everybody’s life is in the Hand of God, not the detractors. The detractors and evil forces that are preaching hate, trying to throw spanner in the works, will fail. May God expose them in all ramifications”
Asked if he was afraid of the threat to his life, the former Commandant of the Nigerian Defence Academy asked “afraid”?
He said: “I am a trained professional soldier and a trained commander.”
“What the country needs is peace. We need all Nigerians to live together in peace and unity.
“All genuine religious leaders are supposed to preach peace and love. Why are there people preaching hate and division?
“The Zango-Kataf they are talking about. Yes. The killings were unfortunate but the dispute was the relocation of the market. Some people didn’t want it. At the end of the day, Commission of Inquiry was set up; recommendations were made and the Mua’azu Committee’s recommendations had been implemented
“Those that are reverting to it are clever by half. What we need in our country is genuine tolerance and love and peace. We have lived together for a very long time.
“Now, by what they are saying, they are now telling the reason some armed foreign bandits are imported to destroy the country.
“How does that (revisiting his case) address the issue (of killings in Southern Kaduna). So, what is happening in Kaduna and by extension to other parts of the country are bad omen to our unity and stability.”
Commenting on remarks by Commander of the Operation Safe Haven’s that the killings in Southern Kaduna was carried out by criminal elements from both side of the divide, Lekwot, said, as professionals, military officers (commanders) were supposed to be neutral at all settings.
“This would earn them the confidence of the people. That was a very unfortunate statement from a military commander.”
“As professionals, security people are supposed to be neutral in every setting so as to inculcate the confidence of everybody. In other words, when that happens, the cooperation of all sides will emerge.
“But in this setting the military people need intelligence. Credible intelligence which they will use for the operation. What he said was the utterance of the government which boils down to describing what happen,” he said.
On the White Paper committee set up by Governor Nasir El-Rufai to revisit the Zango-Kataf riot, the former military governor said, government at this point ought to preoccupy itself with how to proffer solutions to the killings in Southern Kaduna.
“Given the heat of what is going on – the massive slaughter of innocent villagers, that should preoccupy everybody’s mind and not to revisit what had been concluded. Fine, if that is his own solution, we are waiting to see how he is going to resuscitate what had been concluded.
“By a White Paper that was issued in respect of the issue, is that White Paper they are trying to produce going to be White Paper on top of White paper,” Lekwot queried.
According to Wikipedia, Lekwot, an Atyap and a retired major general who served as the military governor of Rivers State from July 1975 until July 1978 during the military administrations of Generals Murtala Mohammed and Olusegun Obasanjo.
The 2 Brigade Nigerian Army Barracks in Port Harcourt, Rivers State was named the Zamani Lekwot cantonment in his honor. In August 2003 it was renamed the Port Harcourt Barracks.
He was forced to retire in 1985 after Banbangida became Chief of Staff following the military coup of 31 December 1983 that brought Gen Muhammadu Buhari to power.
On 15 May 1992 violence erupted between the mainly Moslem Hausa and mainly Christian Kataf communities of the Zangon Kataf Local Government Area in Kaduna State with many deaths.
A tribunal set up by the Babangida government sentenced Lekwot and 16 others to death for alleged complicity in the killings, sentences eventually reduced to a short gaol sentence.
He was assisted in his prolonged battle to avoid execution by Yohanna Madaki.
By December 1995, he received a state pardon.
The Guardian/Vanguard/Wikipedia
