Ninzom Progressive Youths (NPY) has defended the nude protest by the women during the Monday visit of Governor Ramalan Yero to Southern Kaduna.

Hundreds of half and totally nude women were reported to have protested in Fadan Karshi, Sanga Local Government Area, during the condolence visit of the governor to the village, five days after invaders believed to be Fulani herdsmen killed 50 people in the area and destroyed property wort millions of naira.

Speaking to newsmen in Kaduna, NPY National President, Mr. Bezard Wuyah, said: “It has come to the notice of Ninzom youths that some people have been taking advantage of the display of anger by widows who demonstrated half naked before the governor to seek for favour.

“I want to make it clear that the women who demonstrated were from Gwandara, Nandu, Mada, Numana, Nimzom and Gwantu.

“It is a common culture of these tribes in the past for their widows to wail without their clothes on. They did not come from one tribe. They are united in their grief, and could not have been mobilised by any single person or group.

“They are angry that Yero had not shown any concern to their plight and they took the advantage of his coming to express it in the best way they could get his attention. They were widowed by the several attacks. Some had their entire families wiped out and their homes destroyed.

“If nothing is done to improve their welfare and that of their children, I am sure they will do same if given another chance.”

The Southern Kaduna Indigenes Progressive Forum (SKIPFO) also condemned the visit of Yero to Fadan Karshi.

According to SKIFO, “The visit was a show of force” and demonstrated lack of empathy to the victims, going by what it said was the unneeded huge number of armed security men that escorted Yero to the place.

A press statement signed by Major George Nchok Asake (rtd) in Kaduna reads: “It is no longer news that the state governor, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, has never deemed it necessary to pay any condolence visit to the affected Southern Kaduna communities that have had their people brutally and mercilessly killed. He has also not taken any action to protect these affected communities nor any other Southern Kaduna community for that matter except those occupied by his settlers Hausa/Fulani brothers.

“Yero visited Fadan Karshi with a very large force of armed personnel. That was not a show of sympathy or condolence. It was pure show of state might to intimidate and suppress any dissection in view of his hate against our people. We kick against this show of naked power and we want to assure him that we shall take our revenge in the ballot box.”

•Photo shows Governor Yero.

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