A pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group on the aegis of ‘Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has tasked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to stop the distraction and fixation over his second term ambition and focus on protecting the lives and property of Nigerians.
It questioned why the President is insensitive and only concerned about his re-election while the citizens who are expected to cast their votes in 2027 are being decimated by terrorists.
The rights group said; “Who does the President expect to participate in the next general elections if the heightened state of insecurity is not effectively curbed?”
HURIWA therefore stressed the need for President Tinubu to concentrate more on the eradication of mass killers of innocent and law-abiding Nigerians, eradicate saboteurs embedded in the military and political offices.
HURIWA in a statement by Emmanuel Onwubiko, National coordinator, said that way Nigerians would be certain that there is a functional government in Nigeria and that the country is not a failed state.
In the words of HURIWA; “The rate at which farmers, fishermen, Christian clerics are slaughtered in Plateau, Taraba, Benue states and Southern Kaduna, should be a major concern to the President and his administration should work on the concrete measures to take out these saboteurs of our collective national security first and foremost, so we know that there is indeed a government in Nigeria.
“In Eastern Nigeria, efforts to curtain the activities of the so-called unknown gunmen have been mismanaged by the federal government even as the President has failed to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from illegal detention which ultimately complicated the security situation in all of South East of Nigeria.
“It is painful that at a time that soldiers, civilians are wantonly slaughtered by a multiplicity of armed non-state actors all across Nigeria, the president who is the commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the federation is preoccupied with the prospects of his re-election for a final 4-year tenure with nearly two years to end his first term in office,” it said.
HURIWA noted that two years down the line since he was sworn in, the fundamental question people are asking is whether President Tinubu administration has an effective and coordinated security strategy for taming the chronic killings and abductions?
It further said; “Since its inauguration in May 2023, the administration has logged a pathetic security record. President Tinubu has so far failed to implement evidence-based interventions to effectively stop the wanton slaughter of citizens by non state actors.
“A security analytical report by Amnesty International awoke Nigeria to this catastrophe: in Tinubu’s first month in office, attackers killed 123 persons. Unfortunately, the figures keep cascading.
“Beacon Consulting, a security management firm, said 13,346 people have been killed, and 9,207 have been abducted in the 667 of the 774 LGs since Tinubu’s inauguration. From May-December 2023 – eight months after taking office – 5,802 deaths and 2,754 abductions were recorded.
“These figures worsened in 2024 when 7,544 were killed while 6,453 were abducted from January-September. These crimes were attributed to terrorism, banditry, and herders’ attacks on farmers.
“Over 150 persons were slaughtered during the last Christmas Eve in Plateau State. Bandits kidnapped 287 schoolchildren in March in Kuriga, Kaduna, and demanded N1 billion ransom.
More than 300 had been abducted a week earlier in the same village. No fewer than 10 people were killed and 160 abducted in coordinated attacks by bandits in May in Kuchi, Niger State. Major massacres have occurred in Benue, Niger, Zamfara, Yobe, Kaduna and Yobe states in this period,” HURIWA said.
It therefore appealed to President Tinubu to concentrate on confronting the gigantic threats to national security and take a decision to engage the services of armed freelance mercenaries to assist the Nigerian military and police to defeat terrorists who are expanding their areas of attacks all across Nigeria.
