Terror Alerts: Lai Mohammed Lied, Nigeria Not Safer – HURIWA Insists
…Says, FG living in self-denial over insurgency
Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), on Wednesday, castigated the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for labelling the terror alerts issued by the United States and United Kingdom as unverified and misleading, warning of possible terrorist attacks in Abuja, and parts of the country.
While faulting Lai Mohammed, HURIWA stressed that the statistics of terrorists’ attacks in 2022 alone showed that all the claims by the Information Minister and members of Buhari’s cabinet are falsehoods.
A statement by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said Lai Mohammed as Minister of Information, has been churning out untrue propaganda about the security situation in the country under the President Muhammadu Buhari.
HURIWA noted that instead of coming up with superior, anti-terrorist strategies to forestall imminent attacks on the nation’s political capital, the Buhari regime took a defensive position, faulting the intelligence of the UK and US embassies in Nigeria, and giving false impression that all is well and that the country as a whole is well-secured.
HURIWA said that Lai Mohammed delivered his disavowal at a ministerial session of the on-going UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Week in Abuja, saying that such security alert was unnecessary as it was creating panic in the polity.
Mohammed therefore assured that the military and other security agencies have continued to do everything possible to secure and protect Nigerians and foreigners living in Nigeria, adding that terrorists have been hard hit and put on the run while bandits have been decimated and scattered.
Commenting on Mohammed’s position, HURIWA noted that even the Department of State Services (DSS), and the Nigeria Police Force did not disregard the terror alerts by the UK and US but, urged residents of the Abuja metropolis and Nigerians in general to remain calm.
According to HURIWA; “However, Minister Lai Mohammed came up with his usual misleading defence that Nigeria is more safer than before which is a blatant lie.
“Minister Lai Mohammed in his characteristic manner has misled Nigerians for seven years lying that terrorists are defeated but terrorists went ahead to attack an Abuja-Kaduna train on March 28, 2022, killed scores, kidnapped over 60 passengers and held them hostages for over six months before their controversial release earlier in October.
“The same terrorists invaded the Kuje prison in Abuja on July 5, 2022 and freed over 600 inmates including hardened terrorists who are still at large.
“In August, in broad day light, terrorists ambushed and killed some personnel of the Presidential Guards Brigade in Abuja.
“The Owo massacre of over 40 Catholics during a Sunday service in Ondo State on June 5, 2022 is still fresh in the minds of their families and conscientious individuals.
“Under Buhari’s government in the last seven years, no fewer than 53,418 Nigerians lost their lives to terrorists and killer herdsmen between May 29, 2015 and October 15, 2022, according to a data by the Nigerian Security Tracker, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations of the United States of America.
“Yet, Minister Lai Mohammed had the effrontery to tell Nigerians that terrorists are technically defeated. The lies have failed and the Federal Government and its propaganda machineries should quit the lies and the façade.
“Buhari should cut short his South Korea trip and head to Abuja to coordinate Nigeria’s response to the terror alerts. The disregard and the downplaying of intelligence by the present government is at the core of our woes as a people. A responsible government should be preparing effective response and how to forestall terror attacks and not defending the indefensible!
“Like former Chief of Army Staff, Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma, said, Nigeria is being brought to ruin by heavily armed “useless” criminals and it may take self-defence to drive out country’s common “enemy” else Nigeria will be finished,” the civil rights advocacy group said.