A group of concerned citizens under the umbrella of Southern Kaduna Patriotic Front (SKPF), on Sunday in Kaduna, declared that some religious leaders are spreading false information on the unfortunate Southern Kaduna attacks and killings in order to collect foreign donations to enrich themselves.

The group while warning that such Southern Kaduna religious and political leaders should immediately stop using the blood of innocent people to make money, threatening that they will soon release evidence to back up their claims if the wicked acts continue.

In a statement issued by the national coordinator of the group, Magaji Kazzah, in Kaduna, the group explained that as many people of different faith were expressing genuine concern and suggesting ways to stakeholders and government on how to end the killings in parts of Southern Kaduna, some religious leaders used malicious and false narratives to get foreign donations on behalf of the victims which was diverted into private pockets.

The group alerted all relevant security agencies and financial institutions to beam their search lights on some Southern Kaduna clerics among who is a high ranking official of a religious association to unravel their dirty deals over the killings.

They also warned some politicians in Southern Kaduna to desist from using the blood of people to launch their selfish ambition in 2019 elections, saying they should join people of good will irrespective of tribe and religion to bring an end to the prolonged carnage in the area and wait for the time of campaign.

“Many elected politicians in Southern Kaduna have nothing to show ahead of 2019 and have decided to hide under the killings to promote sentiments, hate and division to garner sympathy from the electorates in the far coming elections. Some politicians want to contest and for them to be relevant is to spread false information on the killings and pretend as if they share pains with the victims. Any good politician in the area who wants peace will not do that rather that person will genuinely condemn the killings and join forces with the government and other stakeholders to proffer solution rather than inciting and spreading false information.”

The statement, however, commended some of the Southern Kaduna religious leaders who were preaching and holding peace forums devoid of hate and sentiments, adding that permanent peace is possible in Southern Kaduna but residents must accept to live in peace with one another.

It reads in part: “We expect to see a religious body that will outrightly condemns an attack in Goska village and equally condemn an attack on innocent Fulani passersby in Garaje Kagoro as every life is precious before God.

“The principles of the Great Commission should be applied at times as that is the pillar that holds our Faith.

“The falsification of figures on the number of deaths by the same people we see as religious leaders is rather compounding every peace initiative thereby perpetuating the attacks. Every traditional ruler has a directory of the number of people that were killed in every attack within their communities and have submitted same to the appropriate authorities but it is so disheartening to hear religious leaders exaggerating the figures of the number of people killed in every attack; to achieve what?

“We expect sincere prayers, support for government security policies; and making of positive suggestions to the government on the way out of this menace will go a long way in solving the security problem that is confronting us rather than antagonising every move made by both the federal and state governments towards ending the killings.

“It is also rather unfortunate that these same religious leaders are using this same unfortunate security challenges where lives are being lost to enrich themselves by taking pictures of the unfortunate attacks to foreign missions to collect donations without accounting for such monies to the victims. The question now is; if those our religious leaders have initially rejected the N100 million donation made by Governor El-Rufai on the 12th of November, 2016 to rebuild churches and mosques that were affected in those crisis: why are the same religious leaders going outside the shores of this country to look for donations using the same unfortunate incidents that is bedevilling us?

“It shows how hypocrisy has taken over the hearts of our religious leaders that most of us look up to for spiritual guidance towards our journey to God. Every single soul that is lost will one day definitely judge whatever we use their untimely deaths to achieve for our selfish interest. Security agencies should watch them.

“Have we ever sat down to think that our brothers and sisters are also living elsewhere as minorities? The greed with which some of our leaders have been operating has left nothing to be desired in the leadership of our faith. We pray to God to heal our land and forgive our leaders that are using the deaths of our innocent brethren to achieve their selfish aims.

“Whether we like it or not, the bitter truth is that, there are a number of us who we see as leaders who are equally benefiting from our unfortunate security challenges. Those people will do everything to ensure there is a continuous round of attacks to make the world believe that we are being persecuted by the present government without mentioning the killings that occurred during the previous administrations for them to continue receiving their foreign donations.”