Former governor of old Enugu State, Dr Okwesilieze Nwodo has decried the alarming rate of insecurity across the country.
Nwodo, who is also a former national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, spoke in an interview with Saturday PUNCH.
He said the spate of insecurity especially in Christian communities without the arrest of the perpetrators clearly showed that government might have an agenda with militias under the cover of ‘bandit’ and ‘unknown gunmen’.
He said, “If you listen to what Gen. Sani Abacha, former Head of State, said; ‘if there is insecurity that lasts more than 48 hours, then you should know that the government must know about it. I believe it more than I believe that my name is Okwesilieze Nwodo.
“How can, in the last seven years, many people have been killed across Nigeria, many people have been kidnapped; many people have been raped; many people have been maimed, in all of these, tell me if you have heard of anybody who have been arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned.
“We have a government in this country and people get away with this kind of crime and you said government doesn’t know about it? It is very hard for you to convince me.”
While condemning the massacre of Christian worshippers in St Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo State, Nwodo said it was high time the government showed leadership and live to its constitutional responsibility.
“Do you know where Owo is? It is in the heart of the South-West, deep into the South-West. It has no common boundary with Kogi State like you see Uzo-Uwani here in Enugu; for people to come there, reside there, plan such a thing and execute it; and get a way, all the security apparatus we have in this country, nobody knew.
“In broad daylight, they (terrorists) enter the church with bombs and guns, finished and went away and left blood and destitution and there is government which the first objective in our constitution is to protect these lives and the property.
“Why is nobody asking question why this happened? The question should be the government we put in place to prevent this type of thing from happening; where were they when it happened. Answer us; but you are putting election for us to come to vote for you again so that this will continue and people will go and vote.”
Nwodo, who said Christian communities in the North, especially the Southern Kaduna had become the killing field of Nigeria while the government remained incapacitated.
“In Southern Kaduna, it is mayhem everyday. These people who did things in Owo had a helicopter dropping things for them. If there is any truth in any of these things, who is supposed to find out who is dropping and what was dropped? If the public is complaining that this happened, who is supposed to find out?
“Who is operating this helicopter? Is it Islamic State of West Africa or is it Libya or some other countries that want to wage war against Nigeria? Or is it that there is a government policy to fulanise and Islamize Nigeria and these are agents that government is using to executing that policy and that is why they can do things with impunity and nobody is arrested, nobody is prosecuted.”
Speaking on how the 2023 will likely be, the elder statesman warned that things would get worse if Nigerians didn’t vote out the ruling APC, things will get worse.
He added, “Have you ever seen an APC governor condemning this senseless killings or a leader in the APC condemning it? George Akume is having a running battle with his governor, Samuel Ortom.
“That governor is fighting to liberate his people and defending their land from being taken over in order to wipe them out from the surface of the earth because he’s APC. So, killing his people, taking their land, raping them, kidnapping them is okay? And you want the APC to continue and people will be supporting these atrocities?”
