The Kaduna State Government yesterday imposed a 24-hour curfew on the strategic railway town of Kafanchan in Jama'a Local Government Area in the southern parts of the state when another round of sectarian crisis was brewing between the Christian and Muslim communities.There were conflicting accounts of what ignited the fresh round of crisis in Kafanchan, a town that witnessed the deaths of hundreds of people during the post-election violence of last April.Muhammad Shafi'u Tahir, who is a businessman who resides in Kafanchan, told Daily Trust on telephone that the crisis was ignited when news filtered into the town that two of its youth were slaughtered like rams when they visited a neighbouring village.He said the crisis nearly caught up with him on his way back from Kwoi. He said, 'What actually happened was that on Tuesday, November 8, at about 8pm two of our boys operating Okada [commercial motorcycles] took some passengers to a settlement on the outskirts of Kafanchan known as Katsit. On their way out, some unknown people slaughtered them like rams. Those slaughtered were Muhammad Kabir Lawal alias E-Marlery and Ahmed Musa alias Baba Toro. After slaughtering them they set their motorcycles on fire. Their corpses were found by the roadside this morning (yesterday).'According to Tahir riots broke out when youths from the neighbouring towns surrounded Kafanchan town. The rioting youths, he said, set three petrol filling stations on fire but with the quick intervention of soldiers, the fire was put out.The Chairman of Jama'a local government area Comrade Yonana Markus Barde however gave a different account. He said the root of the crisis emanated from Katsit when a Kafanchan resident paid a visit to his friend there.Barde said, 'It is not true that two people were slaughtered. What actually happened was that a friend who is not resident of Katsit paid a visit to his friend in Katsit. On his way home some people attacked and killed him. When the news spread, pandemonium ensued in Kafanchan. As at the time the crisis erupted, I was liaising with the Sole Administrator of Zangon Kataf because Katsit is in Zangon Kataf, not Jama'a. Before we could hold a security meeting and take the necessary action of arresting the culprits, the crisis broke out. Everything is however now under control. Normalcy has since returned as we have decided to place a 24-hour curfew.'The secretary of Kafanchan Traders Association, Alhaji Abdullahi Danjuma, told our correspondent that he saw two corpses with his own eyes. He said, 'As I talk to you now the youths of Katsit, Adwan I and Marsa have surrounded Kafanchan town. I can now see smoke from burning houses and other properties.'Kaduna State governor Mr. Patrick Yakowa's spokesman Reuben Buhari, reacting to the latest crisis, said it is only peace that can move the state forward. He said the state government has imposed a 24-hour curfew on Kafanchan and its environs.All attempts to speak to the state's commissioner of police Balla M. Nasarawa or the command's public relations officer, Aminu Lawal, were abortive. However, a reliable police source said when the police received a signal on the crisis, it immediately mobilised Unit 103 of the state's security outfit, Operation Yaki, to Kafanchan town.
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