TEXT OF A PRESS STATEMENT BY THE VOLUNTEERS FOR SUNDAY MARSHALL KATUNG ON A PURPORTED ATYAP AGENDA TO UNDERMINE THE CANDIDATURE OF HON. BARR. SUNDAY MARSHALL KATUNG FOR KADUNA SOUTH SENATORIAL DISTRICT IN THE 2023 ELECTION.
Southern Kaduna is at crossroads. For far too long, the region has been plagued by various political and socio-economic challenges. Successive leadership at zonal, state, and national levels have done their bids to improve the situation without concomitant results.
There’s no gainsaying the fact that Southern Kaduna today would require a united and committed front if it still nurses any hope of bettering its circumstances; and the 2023 elections in this regard provide us with an opportunity for that.
Whether it is the senatorial or governorship or presidential election, our people need to be strategic and speak with one voice. The bickering and grandstanding coming from one of the losing camps in the last PDP primaries which are motivated by ethnic sentiments must be nipped in the bud and rapidly too. The Atyap leaders in this regard should thread with caution.
The Southern Kaduna senate seat is not and can NEVER be the exclusive preserve of one tribe, let alone an individual. This is the simple reason why the Jaba, Koro, and Kagoro people didn’t raise eyebrows or create any storm when the distinguished senators Azeez Zego, Caleb Zaggi, and Nenadi Usman lost their re-election bids. The refusal to accept the outcome of the last primaries and the plethora of petitions engineered and written to the PDP headquarters and some government agencies by some Atyap leaders to frustrate the recently elected 2023 PDP senatorial candidate as claimed and re-echoed by one Nathan Mavis Akau, the Director General, Media for the Distinguished Senator Danjuma Laah Campaign and other agents/surrogates is highly comdemnable, reprehensible and dangerous to the goal of the unity and progress of the region. This brazen act of shame and tribalistic grandstanding, fueled by a sense of entitlement, is unprecedented in the history of Southern Kaduna.
We need not remind the Atyap elders, some of whom are rumoured to be part of the evil agenda to shortchange Barr. Sunday Marshall Katung’s victory, to remember the big brother spirit demonstrated by other tribes in the zone when they supported the emergence and stewardship of Atyap sons and daughters to various positions meant for the zone. For example, since the return to democratic rule in 1999, of the over 50 ethnic nationalities in the zone, only the Atyap nation has produced two ministers, two senators, a member of the House of Representatives, GMD of the NNPC, among other juicy positions. The least the rest of SK expects from the Atyap nation, therefore, is gratitude, and not rebellion.
The majority of the SK people are watching keenly how these schemes unfold. But as some of the Atyap sons and daughters put themselves on a collision course with the rest of us, under the guise of an Atyap agenda, it will be imperative for the rest of the Atyap nation to rise above board and make known the position of the majority of the Atyap people. This is in the interest of all and for the common good. It is a struggle for a better Southern Kaduna and not a tribal war.
Come what may, the will of the majority shall surely prevail, and Sunday Marshall Katung shall be the next Senator of the people come 2023, God willing.
Signed:
Sogfa Philemon (Secretary)
08/06/2022
