From Noah Ebije, Kaduna
Residents of Kapam Rido, in the vicinity of Kaduna Refinery and Petrochemical Company (KRPC), Thursday, shed tears and rained curses on those who killed their son, Mr. Genesis Iliya, 22, as his remains was laid to rest eight months after men of Kaduna Vigilante Services (KADVIS) gruesomely killed him during a demolition exercise by the State Urban Planning and Development Agency (KASUPDA).
Sunday Sun gathered that the trouble started early February when KASUPDA gave a two-week quit notice to concerned individuals in the community to vacate the portion of land allegedly belonging to KRPC. Following the demolition, the community decided to jointly drag KASUPDA, KRPC and the state government to court to stop them from taking over their land. The case is being handled by Dr. Reuben Atabo (SAN) on behalf of the community and which is still subsisting in the Kaduna State High Court 3.
It was also gathered that the body of Mr. Iliya had been kept in the mortuary for almost eight months because of the pending court case.
The officiating cleric, Rev. Ezra Solomon Allaluma of Bethel Baptist Church, Ungwan Kapam, gave a brief sermon based on Ecclesiastes 12:1 and Hebrew 9:27, reminding the sympathisers that it was “appointed unto man to die once, after which it would be judgment day before God.”
To this end, the cleric advised everybody, especially the youths to devote their energy to the service of God, saying, “I advise you to make use of your youthful ages to serve God because on the day of our death we become food to the earth.”