In the wake of growing insecurity and the loss of lives across the country, the pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has called on the Federal Government to expedite the trial of suspected kidnappers and terrorists as part of measures to address the challenge.
The group, in a statement on Saturday by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, expressed regret that the regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), was not doing enough to tackle terrorism and kidnapping festering daily, and, therefore, urged the Federal Government to change its style and confront the challenges head-on.
The statement recalled the kidnapping of about 30 children working on a farm in Mairuwa village in Katsina State, the abduction of travellers, including a former deputy vice-chancellor at the University of Ibadan, Prof Adigun Agbaje, on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway; the killing of dozens of people in Benue State, the killing of an employee of the National Examination Council staff by suspected armed robbers on the campus of the University of Ibadan, the abduction of four travellers in Ekiti and the demand of taxes from farmers by terrorists in Niger and Katsina states.
Ajayi stated that despite the assurances of the President that insecurity would be fully addressed, incidents of kidnapping, banditry, terrorism and others had escalated to the point that the governments of the United States of America, United Kingdom, Canada, and Denmark advised their citizens to stay away from Abuja, Nigeria’s federal capital.
While acknowledging the reported efforts of security agencies at checkmating the antics of bandits and terrorists, Ajayi submitted that the intensity, regularity and ferocity of terrorism in the country “tend to suggest that the terrorists and bandits are ahead of the government in the game. Whereas the opposite was supposed to be the case.”
The statement read in part, “Stop the kid-glove treatment being given to arrested bandits and terrorists. Expedite action on the trials of apprehended terrorists and bandits. Clearly demonstrate that we are all equal before the law and that no individual, group or tribe should enjoy preferential treatment over and above others.”
