The governor of Kaduna State, Uba Sani, has said that the federal government has put plans in motion to begin to rebuild Tudun Biri, the community that was the target of the Nigeria Army drone strike that killed civilians after mistaking them for terrorists.
The governor said this in an interview on ARISE NEWSNIGHT on Thursday, where he also spoke on plans that the Kaduna State government has for the rehabilitation of the community, as well as the provision of palliatives to the victims of the blasts as well as their families.
Sani expressed happiness over the fact that his call for compensation to the families of the victims was also approved.
He relayed a message ftom President Bola Ahmed Tinubu through Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who paid a visit to the victims of the drone strike on Thursday, saying, “The Federal Government will pay compensation to the family, apart from paying compensation, they will rebuild the entire community.”
Sani went on to explain the development of the community rebuilding saying that President Tinubu has planned to, within two months, begin a program to provide accommodation where displaced persons in different states in Nigeria – Kaduna being one of those states – could live and build communities.
He then said, “Because of this incident, Mr. President has directed that the program should start in Kaduna, and the Tudun Biri community should be the first community to benefit in the whole of the country,
“”So, in the next few weeks, by the grace of God, the Federal government will start rebuilding the houses for them.”
He went on to appreciate the presidency on their assistance to the state, saying, “When the incident happened, I called on the Federal Government to initiate investigation and probe the incident, and I also thank Mr. President and Mr. Vice-President for responding positively to our call because Mr. President quickly initiated the investigation.
“Today the vice-president, alongside some high-level delegation came to Kaduna to visit those in the hospitals. I took him round, and we also met the community leaders and religious leaders here in the government house here in Kaduna.”
Sani then addressed what the Kaduna State government itself had done regarding the situation, saying that his government was very proactive about the incident when it occurred. He said, “Immediately the unfortunate incident happened, we quickly responded by ensuring that we evacuated the injured ones and moved them to our hospital, that’s Barau Dikko hospital in Kaduna.
“Until that moment, we are the ones looking at their own health, we are paying for their health bills, we are taking care of the families.
“We also have been able to handle the situation in terms of providing relief materials to the victims of the unfortunate incident, those that were living in the communities that were affected, and even those who were not affected but some of them, most of their families were also displaced because of the unfortunate incident. We decided to also distribute relief materials to all of them.”
Sani also spoke about the children who have been orphaned as a result of the blast, saying, “Kaduna State government has offered, under my leadership, to make sure that we look after them and we take care of them.”
On the issue of a non-kinetic approach to security in the state, he said, “We are leading on that. Today, as I am speaking with you, there are two committees set up by the national security adviser, we are talking with our religious and traditional leaders in Birnin-Gwari, in Zangon Kataf, in Daura, in Igabi, while we are looking at how do we approach this issue.
“But you see, I’m not like other politicians that like politicizing the issue of security, because we don’t do that. We talk closely with the security heads and we are touching with them. I will not come here and tell you our entire strategy, but we are working and touching closely on that.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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