Gov. El-Rufai’s Sends Nine Kajuru Elders To Prison Over Emirate Tussle
The elders are Engineer Bawa Magaji (Wazirin Adara), Sani Magaji (Commissioner of Police (retired)/Baradan Adara), Awemi Dio Maisamari ( Adara Development Association President), Joseph Abdallah (Adara Development Association National Treasurer), Tanko Maisamari (Village Head Maro), Hosea Danladi (Village head Ungwan Gamo), Joseph Ayuba (Village Head Kutura) , Tank Wada (Village Head Aguba), Ulu Maitumbi (Ungwan Barde Elder).
A source who spoke to SaharaReporters said: “Shortly after Agom Adara of Adara Kindgom died in a pre-arranged manner, the chiefs noticed a change in how information was flowing from the state and local government to the chiefdom because the Gazette was being implemented without consultation of the Adara people.
Engineer Bawa Magaji, Wazirin Adara who stepped into the late Monarch’s shoes approached the Governor through a letter seeking his audience for dialogue to no avail.
The source added that in a bid to further appeal to the governor, the Adara traditional rulers took a copy of the letter to the Emir of Zazzau to no avail.
When all diplomatic efforts failed, the group of elders through a team of lawyers filed a case in the High Court of Justice Holden at Kaduna with SUIT NO. KDH/KAD/72/2019 where “The 1st Defendant is the Governor and Chief Executive of Kaduna State pursuant to Section 195 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amende
“The elders were however arrested about a week to the first hearing. The five village heads among the elders were told to come for a peace dialogue with Fulani elders in the area; they thought it was a step towards peace so they went and were rounded up after they were made to write a statement while the Fulani Ardo was asked to go home.” the source added
Link To Kajuru Attacks
On Febuary 15, 2019, Nasir El-Rufai, governor of Kaduna state on twitter announced that 66 people were killed in Fulani enclaves in Kajuru Local Government Area of the state.
An official report from the state government read, “Security agencies today reported the recovery of 66 bodies that were killed in attacks by criminal elements on various dispersed hamlets in the Maro Gida and Iri axis of Kajuru LGA. The settlements affected include Ruga Bahago, Ruga Daku, Ruga Ori, Ruga Haruna, Ruga Yukka Abubakar, Ruga Duni Kadiri, Ruga Shewuka and Ruga Shuaibu Yau”.
Shortly after the statement which SaharaReporters confirms was false, there has been a wave of attacks on unarmed civilians mostly of Adara extraction by armed herdsmen; the most recent which was the killing of a foreign tourist and three others at Kajuru Castle on April 20, 2019 by armed herdsmen in Kajuru Local Government Area.
The attacks have left severval indigenous Adara people displaced without mention or attention by the state government.
Some names of displaced people
Adara Community Cries Out
Some affected family members are crying out like Mercy Maisamari who said: “Just thought I should share this, do you know that this is the second time my dad the ADA president Mr Dio Maisamari has been arrested by the kaduna state police?
“The first arrest was February last year when he was called to come and bail some Adara youths whom were arrested after an attack in one of the Adara villages. He got there and they arrested him detained him for 3days then charged him to court where he was granted bail, but he kept going for the court case for months before the case was finally dismissed because they couldn’t find any evidence on him.
“This is a man whom has given and is still giving people a source of livelihood in kajuru local government both indigenes and non indigenes he has created job opportunities for many in his school, CDI (Community Development Institute) foundation school”.
An internally displaced person Shariason A Abednego said: “The Adara Nation started suffering displacement the very moment our Chief was abducted and greusomely murdered. We became sheep without a shepherd, vulnerable to all manner of attack, physically and psychologically. We had little or no voice to air out our pains and agony.
“It is against our human rights as Adara people under a binded constitution to be divided and possibly erased using political powers amidst terrorism. We suffer severe attack and killings and get compensated by arresting our leaders who are denied Justice by prolonged detention.
Luka Biniyat, a vocal critic of the El-Rufai administration recounted his experience visiting the Adara nine: “As a former inmate, I was in Kaduna prison to see the Adara nine where hey are held with other captives. They looked well but more importantly, their spirit is not broken…we exchanged some wise cracksand it was so nice to see some light moments…their people are going to terror”.
The nine Adara elders of Kajuru in Kaduna State remain in detention at the time of filing this report with no known charge preffered against them save for “orders from above”.
