The lawmaker representing Ede-North/Ede-South/Egbedore/Ejigbo Federal Constituency in Osun State at the House of Representatives, Bamidele Salam, on Wednesday, held a solo protest against insecurity in Nigeria.
Salam, who was dressed in black, walked barefooted from the Unity Fountain in the Maitama area of the Federal Capital Territory to the National Assembly Complex in the Three Arms Zone in Asokoro.
The lawmaker lamented that terrorists and other criminal gangs are killing and maiming, with many abducted Nigerians in captivity, while the political elite are busy with electioneering towards the 2023 general elections.
Salam lamented that the Senate and the House of Representatives have passed several resolutions which the Federal Government, led by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has allegedly failed to implement.
The lawmaker, who wrote on his placard, ‘President Muhammadu Buhari, please do more to secure freedom for the Kaduna train abductees and other citizens in captivity,’ addressed journalists at the House of Representaives’ Media Centre, saying, “As an individual, I am worried by the turn of events in our dear nation. Our nation is becoming a jungle of sorts where criminals carve out turfs and operate freely without let or hindrance.
“One of the key dimensions of this criminality is the unholy practice of kidnapping for ransom, which according to a report has spawned a billion naira industry in the last seven years or so.”
“It is to our embarrassment as a nation that our wives, mothers, fathers, husbands get routinely kidnapped at will of bandits with many of them losing their lives even after the payment of ransom.”
Salam pointed out that the country “cannot continue along this route,” adding that the kidnappings and deaths “are a stain on our national conscience.”
He said, “We are at that point today when the Federal Government under the leadership of the President must rise to its full height and exercise leadership. It is trite to remark that the unfettered activities of bandits, terrorists and other criminals have created the impression in the minds of many Nigerians and even foreigners that Nigeria is tottering on the brink of collapse.”
“What needs to be done to secure the release of the Kaduna train victims must be done. Too many precious Nigerian lives have been lost to kidnappers and other malevolent individuals to permit these hapless victims of the train hijack to become the latest statistics of a nefarious enterprise that has sullied the national image.
“I call on my colleagues in the National Assembly and Nigerians at large to join me in urging President Buhari to do all that is within his power as the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces to free these victims and many others languishing in captivity.”
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