Group accuses Lekwot of misrepresentation of facts on Zangon-Kataf crisis
The Hausa and Fulani community in Zangon-Kataf Local Government Area of Kaduna State has accused a former governor of old Rivers State, Major General Zamani Lekwot (Rtd) of misrepresentation of fact on the gruesome killing of citizens in the area during the infamous ZangonKataf riots of 1992.
The Zango Urban Community Development Association (ZUCODA) in a letter to Lekwot and made available to journalists in Kaduna, said in an interview Lekwot granted to a TV station recently; he allegedly made “futile attempt” at a “mischievous and unnecessary misrepresentation of facts to open a retrial of the 1992 Zangon-Kataf crisis” through media propaganda.
In the letter signed by the Board of Trustees Chairman of the association, Alhaji Ibrahim Gambo Bissallah, the group accused Lekwot of creating set back in the on-going reconciliation and mending of relationship among the affected communities in Zangon-Kataf chiefdom.
The letter read in part: “Your recent interview with a renowned journalist (Malam Kabiru Yusuf of the Daily Trust), who, as generality of the people, may be unaware of possible ulterior motive, had come and gone; however, it raised a lot of issues and left so many unanswered questions.
“Not only were your responses uncoordinated but there were lots of deliberate mischief, distortion of facts and misinformation that has become your stock-in-trade. Perhaps, you were re-enacting your trait in hoodwinking your gullible tribesmen in the early 1990s when they did not know who you are and what you stand for.
“As you rightly stated, you were tried, convicted and pardoned, but you were wrong in claiming you were framed for a crime you never committed.
“For somebody of your standing, a retired general belonging to a clique in Nigeria that are hardly caught on the wrong side of the law, if you were not culpable, truth would have set you free and the world would have come to your rescue. You would not have been indicted by a commission of enquiry and tribunal both headed by Christians like you.
“The people of Zangon Kataf, especially the Hausa-Fulani community, would like to wonder what exactly did you set out to achieve by this interview at this critical time when the nation is in desperate search for peaceful co-existence amongst its peoples in the face of the protracted insecurity involving kidnapping, banditry and unknown gunmen attacks in the nation, especially in Zangon Kataf, Southern Kaduna and Kaduna State in general.”
The group called on the retired general to tow the path of peace, equity and reconciliation to mend the relationship among the affected communities.