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Christian witnesses in two nearby villages also said that police came and took photographs of the crime scene and took down the names of the people who allegedly carried out the attack. A delegation of 13 community leaders and witnesses also went to the police headquarters in the town of Maigana on April 20, 2011 and filed formal, signed statements. “We have not heard anything back,” explained one of the residents. “We still see the people [who carried out the attack]. They are still in the community.” 420 Similarly, the witness from Ungwar Tuji said he still sees the men who killed his two neighbors. “I see them almost daily going about their normal business,” he mused. “There have been no arrests.” 421 Human Rights Watch interviewed two witnesses from Matsirga in southern Kaduna State who said they went to the police to file a complaint but were turned away. One of the witnesses, a woman who saw her husband and neighbor murdered in her presence in April 2011, said that when she heard that police from Abuja had come to the nearby town of Kafanchan to take witness statements, she went to file a complaint: I heard that the police were taking complaints, so I went to the police headquarters in Kafanchan. The police said Matsirga is under Zangon Kataf [local government area], so we should go to Zonkwa. That same day we hired a car and went to the Zonkwa police station. Six of us went together—we were all women—and we met two men [from Matsirga] at the Zonkwa police station. When we got to the police station the men told us that the Zonkwa police hadn’t received any signal like that, so we just went back. 422 Similarly, a civil servant from Matsirga who witnessed people killed went to the police in Kafanchan to file a formal police report immediately after the violence, but the area commander there told him, “if the police started arresting people now, it would cause more problems.” Instead the area commander advised him to wait until a commission of inquiry was set up to investigate the violence. 423 Muslim leaders from Matsirga later summited a report to the state commission of inquiry and the federal panel and included the names of the perpetrators they could identify, but none of the alleged perpetrators has been arrested. “Nobody has been arrested. They are going 420 Human Rights Watch interview with a resident of Unwar Dawa, November 20, 2011. 421 Human Rights Watch interview with a resident of Ungwar Tuji, November 20, 2011. 422 Human Rights Watch interview with a Matsirga resident, Kafanchan, November 19, 2011. A Human Rights Watch researcher went to the divisional police headquarters in Zonkwa on March 12, 2012 to ask about the investigations but was told that all questions had to be referred to police headquarters in Kaduna. 423 Human Rights Watch interview with a civil servant from Matsirga, Kafanchan, May 2, 2011. “LEAVE EVERYTHING TO GOD” 114
about living their normal lives,” the civil servant later lamented. “There is not a day that I go to the market that I do not see one or two of them.” 424 Witnesses from other communities, however, said they were able to file formal police complaints. In May 2011, a group of Muslim residents from Maraban Rido went to the police headquarters in Kaduna and filed police reports with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). A Muslim resident from Maraban Rido provided Human Rights Watch with a list of 35 witnesses who filed police complaints. The list included the name of the witnesses, the perpetrators they could identify, and the types of offenses the perpetrators had allegedly committed. 425 But the police did not take any action, he said. “They haven’t arrested anybody. Up until now the people that we saw shooting and killing are still in Maraban Rido.” 426 Fulani leaders said that they compiled a report on the attacks on rural Fulani in southern Kaduna State and submitted it to the state commission of inquiry and the federal panel. They also said they filed a complaint at police headquarters in Kaduna, but there have been no arrests. 427 In Gidan Maga, the town where the district head was killed, the Muslim community submitted a report to the state commission of inquiry and the federal panel of investigation. The report included names of the persons killed, witnesses, and perpetrators. 428 Human Rights Watch met with the police in Kaduna and Abuja in March 2012 and asked about the status of the investigations in the specific cases. The deputy head of State CID in Kaduna—who has been with the investigations department since before the April 2011 violence—showed an astonishing lack of interest in the case, “I wouldn’t know if they reported [to the police]. There were a few complaints that came afterwards. It’s possible that a few individuals came and filed complaints, and the police made some effort but the suspects were not there.” He added, however, that there were no open investigations from the post-election violence at that time. 429 The head of the Legal department at police headquarters in Kaduna also told Human Rights Watch that she was unaware of anyone else charged for the violence apart from those charged following the initial arrests in April 2011. 430 Human Rights Watch also met with the police commissioner overseeing 424 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with a civil servant from Matsirga, November 12, 2011. 425 List of witnesses from Maraban Rido on file with Human Rights Watch. 426 Human Rights Watch interview with a resident from Maraban Rido, Kaduna, August 17, 2011. 427 Human Rights Watch interview with Ahmadu Suleiman, chairman of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Kaunda State Chapter, Kaduna, November 13, 2011. 428 See Muslim Youth Forum, “Gidan Maga Memorandum.” 429 Human Rights Watch interview with B.W. Dakyer, March 13, 2012. 430 Human Rights Watch interview with S.A. Bugaje, March 13, 2012. 115 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | DECEMBER 2013
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H U M A N R I G H T S W A T C H “
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Copyright © 2013 Human Rights Watc
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Renewed Violence in Kaduna State, 2
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“Leave Everything to God” Accou
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On a sunny day in January 2010, in
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A mosque burned by mobs on April 18
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(above) A man stands in the rubble
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Photograph allegedly taken of a mob
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A mass grave for the victims of the
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RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE GOVERNMENT O
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RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE PLATEAU STAT
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financial incentives or promise any
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Non-indigenes are often denied acce
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“peculiar attitudes” and will
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The conflict over indigene rights h
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II. Inter-Communal Violence in Plat
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curfew, which was widely ignored, a
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speech to the Nigerian Senate in Oc
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the police to investigate them. 78
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In the pre-dawn hours of January 19
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Satellite image of Kuru Karama 21 m
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communities. 102 When the Muslim le
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didn’t want to see the children [
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ut “[s]he was not able to reach m
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On January 20, some of the Muslim r
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Sabon Gidan Kanar Witnesses said th
Page 53 and 54: eeders association in Plateau State
Page 55 and 56: The March 2010 Dogo Nahawa Massacre
Page 57 and 58: mass grave: 16 men, 16 women, and 3
Page 59 and 60: man who survived the attack told Hu
Page 61 and 62: finish.” He continued, “Fightin
Page 63 and 64: IV. Impunity for the 2010-2013 Viol
Page 65 and 66: charge them with. Federal prosecuto
Page 67 and 68: moving about freely. One of the wit
Page 69 and 70: know us. They are still there in th
Page 71 and 72: provided Human Rights Watch with in
Page 73 and 74: Kafanchan Special Judicial Tribunal
Page 75 and 76: News of the Zango massacre sparked
Page 77 and 78: 2000 “Sharia Riots” In February
Page 79 and 80: killed scores of people before even
Page 81 and 82: government, found that 938 people i
Page 83 and 84: campus chanting pro-Buhari slogans
Page 85 and 86: cutlasses, and sticks, and they cam
Page 87 and 88: The police escorted the convoy of M
Page 89 and 90: men divided the Muslim men and wome
Page 91 and 92: Another Muslim man, whose 19-year-o
Page 93 and 94: Violence in Kafanchan The town of K
Page 95 and 96: gave a free rein to the Muslims—t
Page 97 and 98: The man said he later went back to
Page 99 and 100: the house. There were 10 men and 12
Page 101 and 102: free.” 405 Communal bloodletting
Page 103: identified. The team arrested a num
Page 107 and 108: VIII. The Legal Framework Internati
Page 109 and 110: houses, shops, or places of worship
Page 111 and 112: The Nigeria Police Force has also b
Page 113 and 114: IX. The Anatomy of Impunity The fai
Page 115 and 116: arrest those they find at the scene
Page 117 and 118: advice, they refused to do that; [w
Page 119 and 120: more likely to know each other—an
Page 121 and 122: justice. For example, a Hausa woman
Page 123 and 124: villages in Plateau State, and from
Page 125 and 126: emaining cases. 523 The federal tri
Page 127 and 128: We asked the people who have been a
Page 129 and 130: Plateau State Attorney General Edwa
Page 131 and 132: violence to book,” he told Human
Page 133 and 134: Political Compromises That Reinforc
Page 135 and 136: who set their homes on fire, those
Page 137: Plateau and Kaduna—two states in
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