ARCHBISHOP NDAGOSO VISITS VICTIMS OF ADAMA DUTSE ATTACK

By Fr. Stephen Onyema

On Sunday morning, February 18, 2024, the Adama DutseCommunity in Kajuru Local Government of Kaduna State was attacked by unknown assailants who killed 11 persons, 7 injured and left ample destruction of community homes and property.

In response to the attack, Archbishop Ndagoso, the Catholic Archbishop of Kaduna, led the team of priests and laity of the Archdiocese on March 8, 2024 and was received by the community members at the village square of Adama Dutse.

Archbishop Ndagoso also inspected St. Julius Catholic Church and the 28 houses which were all burnt down and foodstuffs were also destroyed and everything that people need to survive in those houses that were affected were all destroyed by the bandits during the attack. The Archbishop thanked security agencies for their quick response that morning, saying that without their quick intervention, the damage would have been worse.

According to the Archbishop, the security personnel need to be empowered by the government with modern arms and technology to combat terrorist activities in the country.

He called on the government to secure the lives and property of its citizens so that they can go back to their farms which is their major means of livelihood. “This is an agrarian community and most of the foods we eat come from the rural communities. Therefore, we are only reminding the government of their responsibilities”.

Ndagoso tasked government to live up to their campaign promises and make the country better.

“Nobody has any excuse to leave this country worse than the way he met it; you promised Nigerians that you are going to make the country better therefore, do whatever it takes to make it better. It has been said time and time again that if you are there and you can't do it, you know the honorable thing to do, but if you remain there, you have to do whatever it takes to secure our lives and make the country better”.

While condoling with the people of the community, the Archbishop urged them to stop agonizing and start organizing and take their destiny into their own hands by defending themselves in any way they could.

The Archbishop also noted that the incident happened during first Plenary of 2024 of the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria in Abuja, which made the him send Very Revd. Fr. Daniel Kyom, the Dean of Rimau Deanery, Fr. Emmanuel Okpara the Parish Priest, Revd. Fr. Joshua Achir, the Coordinator of Justice and Peace Caritas

[JDPC], and Fr. Stephen Onyema the Director of Communication and those on ground to assess the level of the attack and damage and report to him.

“I am here to  be sure and verify the things they told me, and everywhere there’s emergency we have an outfit, an arm of the Church, at the local level we call it JDPC and at the national level we call it Church and Society, they respond to emergency situations. They came here and did the assessments, to know what the community needsimmediately especially those affected”. 

“It is in response to the needs assessments done by the JDPC, our emergency response team that I decided that we come here and give them the little assistance we can give”. 

The Archbishop also expresses joy that the people have resolved not to go to anywhere since this is where they were born and here they will die. 

Responding on behalf of the community Mr. Anthony Peter, the mai wa'azi (the teacher of faith), thanked the Archbishop for the visit and provision of relief materials to the community, saying that they are not going to run away or leave their ancestral land, no matter the situation. He called on the Government to come to their aid.

Some of the relief materials given by the Archbishop include: Zinc (20 bundles), Mattresses (20 pieces), Rice - 10 bags (50kg), Maize – 10 bags, Garri - 3 bags, Beans - 2 bags, Palm oil (75 litres) and sacks of clothes.