Bomba Dauda
The Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, Hadiza Sabuwa Balarabe has applauded the peace agreement initiated by Agwatyap, His Royal Highness, Agwam Dominic Gambo Yahaya over the weekend in Zango Kataf, Southern Kaduna Senatorial District of the State. She made the statement when she paid a courtesy visit to Agwayap in his Palace, yesterday.
The visit was to encourage him and condole with the people over the heinous incident that occurred in the chiefdom, which led to loss of lives and properties and necessitated the peace accord among Atyap, Hausa and Fulani people.
“I have come to you not as a Muslim, I’m also standing here not as someone from Sanga, I’m standing here as a human being,” she said. Adding, “This is because I want us to remove the toga of religion and ethnicity in whatever that we do because it is the only way we can make a difference.”
She went further, “We learnt of what you have been doing before the signing of the peace agreement, it was something that gladdens our hearts. One thing that we have always wanted is to have peace because there is no development without peace.
“We complained all the time that Southern Kaduna is being left behind that there are no developments but, when people are invited to come and do things in Southern Kaduna they are scared because there is no peace.
“So for me, this initiative is something that we can’t keep quiet about it. We are here today to say thank you very much for the initiative. For me, this is just the beginning and all other traditional leaders are thinking of how to start the same initiative.
“We all need to come together to sort for peace, sort for unity, and without solidarity for one another, we can’t get anywhere. I pray and hope that every traditional ruler, no matter his level will copy what Agwatyap has done.”
She added that, If God wanted all of us to be Atyap he would have made it so, if he had wanted all of us to be Christians or Muslims he would have made it so. It is his own prerogative that he created us in diverse ways and he expected that diversity should be complimentary; it should not be something that will divide us. She prayed that this peace effort that we have started will open our eyes, open our ears, open our minds and we will understand that we are one.
In his remark, Agwatyap said, “We are happy that you have come to condole with us and to encourage us on the peace effort we are making. Our hearts have gladdened. When we conceived the idea of this peace effort, with all the stakeholders involved, I knew it was the voice of God directing us to do so and we thank God that the peace summit was hitch free and largely successful. The summit and the resolutions that were adopted were 13. This agreement or communiqué or memorandum of understanding is just a spoken word, we realized that it is just a step; we need to work harder to actualize it and the responsibility of actualizing it is vested on us. Everyone in the community needs to see this agreement as their document.
The paramount ruler made an appeal, he appealed with the government for the construction of the road from Government Day Secondary School, Zango-kataf to Ungwan Jaba and from Ungwan Wakili to Kwakwu to Gora and also appealed for the construction of a road and drainages in Zango Urban and the bridge linking Gidan Zaki and Sabon Kaura which has remained an encumbrance.
The Chairman, Zango-kataf LGA expressed his joy on the visit by government delegation, he said, I was very delighted when I received a formal message that Her Excellency the Deputy Governor of Kaduna State will be coming to Zango. There are times that you feel as if you are an orphan but, when you see a helping hand been stretched out to you, then, of course, your perception will change and it will change your thinking.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who is excited that you are here this morning and we are looking forward to continuously feeling your presence because in times like this you need someone to run to. Let me seize this opportunity to thank his Excellency, Gov. Nasiru El-rufai. On Saturday while at the venue of the peace and reconciliation we sorted that the security agencies should reach out to the governor and requested that the 24hrs curfew be reviewed, we were surprised while the programme was going on we received a message that the curfew had being reviewed. We are very pleased and appreciative of that.
It will be recalled, the peace accord on Saturday, 22 August, 2020 was between Atyap, Hausa and Fulani which, was necessitated by the recent violent conflicts that occurred among the ethnic groups leading to loss of lives and properties in the chiefdom.
