The Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has urged a retired army colonel Zamani Lekwot, not to deploy hate campaigns and propaganda to instigate conflict in the country .
CNG spokesperson Abdul-Azeez Suleiman in a statement in Abuja, said Lekwot should avoid making baseless accusations.
CNG was reacting to Zamani Lekwot interview recently in Daily Trust Newspaper on former Military President Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida’s role in the Zangon Kataf crisis.
Lekwot had in the interview explained that some mischievous persons in Zangon Kataf accused him of importing weapons under the administration of the General Babangida.
“We launched an appeal fund to codify our language and to translate the Holy Bible into our language. So, they said I used that money to buy weapons.
“They fixed a date and attacked a nearby village and that was what triggered the riot. Then the villagers responded, their neighbours also responded, this was how it started”. He said.
CNG spokesperson recalled that Zamani Lekwot, who was a retired army colonel, emerged as a key figure in the Zangon Kataf crisis of 1993, using his influence to mobilize the Atyap ethnic group against the Hausa-Fulani.
He said Lekwot was found by a Commission of inquiry set up by the then military administration and headed by Justice Rahila Cudjoe to be instrumental in organizing attacks on Hausa-Fulani communities in Zangon Kataf and other parts of the state that resulted in the deaths of many people and the displacement of thousands of others.
