Southern Kaduna Peoples Union (SOKAPU) has conveyed relief materials donated by Dominion Chapel International (DCI) to thousands of displaced Chawai natives that armed militias sacked five communities of Chawai Chiefdom, Kaura Local Council of Kaduna State.

The President of SOKAPU, Jonathan Asake, while handing the relief materials to representatives of the affected communities, at Government Primary School, Bakin Kogi, lamented that since the villages were invaded and 25 persons lost their lives, the state government “has not visited the area.”

Asake also alleged that no representative of government bothered about the welfare of the thousands of displaced persons.

“This is the story of the neglect and lack of empathy shown to our traumatised people in Southern Kaduna by both Kaduna State and the Federal Government since this massacre started in 2016,” he alleged.

A former member of the House of Representatives, Asake explained: “It is public-spirited individuals, non-governmental organisations and churches, who we run to, that have been helping with relief materials like what the Domion Chapel International has done today.”

“I will like to use this opportunity to thank the President of Dominion Chapel International, Archbishop John Praise, who asked his members to donate these materials to our people on his birthday (marked on May 2, 2022) as his show of love and solidarity to the people of Chawai and other affected communities in Southern Kaduna and other parts of Nigeria,” Asake said.

Pleading for more donations, he said over 200,000 IDPs from over 145 Southern Kaduna communities live under sub-human conditions in informal IDP camps or squatting under difficult conditions with relations in and outside the state.

Representative of the Archbishop of Kafanchan, Bishop Fortress Eziekel, said: “Archbishop John Praise had refused to celebrate his 62nd birthday with any fanfare because he felt it was not right for him to rejoice while thousands of his brethren are finding it hard to eat after scores of their loves ones have been killed and the government is not doing anything to assist them.”

The National President of Chawai Development Association, Chief Habila Samina, expressed appreciation for the church’s gesture.

He also commended SOKAPU for always seeking intervention for the communities visited by violence from armed herdsmen.