The group said it would take all lawful and legal steps to protect their lands and the rights of their people from the intruders.
The Atyap Community Development Association (ACDA) in Kaduna State has scolded a former Governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, over the purported proscription of the association.
The group said it would take all lawful and legal steps to protect their lands and the rights of their people from the intruders.
In a statement signed by the National President of the association, Samuel Achie described the pronouncement of proscription by the former governor as illegal and of no effect.
The group said ACDA was initially registered as a Corporate Trustee with the Corporate Affairs Commission, Abuja, in the name of Kataf Youth Development Association on 4th October, 1989 with registration number, 5562.
It noted that the name was later changed to Atyap Community Development Association and registered on 27th January, 2010 with registration: CAC/11/No 36929, respectively. ACDA has branches in all the states and the Federal Capital Territory in Nigeria and the diaspora.
The statement noted that ACDA had never engaged in any unlawful activities even in the face of provocation and attacks nor received any notice or complaints of any unlawful activities from the former Kaduna State Government or any quarters whatsoever that would have warranted any caution, not to talk of proscription.
ACDA stressed that the former governor did not follow due process in his desperate attempt to proscribe the association which made the purported proscription illegal.
The statement read in part, “ACDA has not been served with any notice or instrument proscribing it. Our information of the purported proscription was gotten from the social media. Members of the ACDA have the fundamental rights to fair hearing, association, hold and propagate opinion among others as enshrined in the Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as Amended, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights.
“The leadership of the ACDA shall take all lawful and legal steps to protect these rights. Members should therefore remain calm and law abiding as we remain resolute in our resolve to protect our land and people from anybody who thinks they can come from nowhere and take our land.
“To our Hausa Brothers in Zangon Kataf town, we urge you to reject those agents provocateurs based in Kaduna and Abuja who are always trying to knock our heads while they remain safely behind their walled mansions in the cities.
“We have always engaged in dialogue in solving our challenges, until such divisive forces interfere to use force or government fiat to disrupt our peaceful relations. We urged the peace loving people in Zangon Kataf town to embrace dialogue and eschew violence.
“The Hausa community of Zangon Kataf town should join the peace-loving Atyap to remove all the criminals in their midst in order to return to the peace that we had enjoyed before the violent groups with the complicity of the former government set out to destroy the peace we had all worked so hard to build and sustain.
“The leadership of the ACDA shall take all lawful and legal steps to protect these rights. Members should therefore remain calm and law abiding as we remain resolute in our resolve to protect our land and people from anybody who thinks they can come from nowhere and take our land.”
The statement therefore called on the new Governor, Senator Uba Sani, to put an end to the incessant killings and crises in Atyap land and Southern Kaduna.
