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Concerns about renewed violence do not come without some basis. Following the 2000 violence in
Kaduna, for example, security personnel went into a neighborhood in the city of Kaduna to arrest
some of the suspects, but residents protested, and clashes with the police left four people
dead. 559 A human rights lawyer in Kaduna acknowledged that if the police arrested people, it could
cause another “conflagration,” but he argued that if arrests are carried out systematically it would
reduce this risk. “[T]he people must be sure that you [the authorities] are not trying to use your
political power for the purposes of ethnic vengeance or religious vengeance,” he argued.
“Forget Everything” or Face More Violence
In a small town in Birnin Gari local government area in the northern part of Kaduna State, Hausa-Fulani
mobs in April 2011 burned down Christian homes, shops, and churches and looted their property. A
Yoruba Christian man returned to the town after the violence and found that one of the Hausa-Fulani
residents had taken some of his property. He went to the police and the police arrested the man and
brought the stolen property to the police station. He described what happened next:
The police tried to settle the matter. I said I would not accept…. We went to Birnin Gari
with a police officer and the suspect. In Birnin Gari the suspect mentioned names of
other people who had my property. They detained him in Birnin Gari. I went back to
[name of town withheld]. The next day, the two police from Birnin Gari went to [the
town] and arrested three people and took them to Birnin Gari.
The CPC [the Congress for Progressive Change] people went to Birnin Gari and released
the people on bail. That night we met with the sarki [village head]. He said the youth
wanted to attack him because he was the one who let us [come] back [to the town]. “If
we continue arresting them, [he said,] they will try to attack us and cause another
problem, more than before.” He begged us to forget everything, and we should live in
peace. He said, “God has given us those properties, and he [God] will give us another
one.” The next day, a delegate from the sarki, a representative from the CPC, and I,
with the four suspects, went back to the police. We explained to the police that we had
settled the matter. The police let it go.
If we continue to mention those things, we will continue to have troubles. That is why
we just keep quiet. That is how we are still living there now. 560
559 See “Four die in new clash in Nigerian city of Kaduna,” Reuters, March 21, 2000.
560 Human Rights Watch interview with a Yoruba businessman from Birnin Gari, Kaduna, November 16, 2011.
“LEAVE EVERYTHING TO GOD” 142