The herdsmen on Monday killed 19 persons, including children, in fresh attacks on some communities in the Gwer West Local Government Area of Benue State.
The communities attacked included Tse Amgbem, Udam near Aondoana and Agbanu Seghev/Ukuse all in the Gwer West LGA area of the state.
Groups, including the Arewa Consultative Forum, the Middle Belt Forum, the Southern Kaduna Peoples Union and a Tiv group, condemned the killing in Benue State and the threat by bandits to kill students of Greenfield University, Kaduna State.
Recall that 23 students and a member of staff of the privately-owned university, located along the Kaduna-Abuja highway were abducted from the school on April 20, 2021. Few days later, five of the students were killed by the bandits.
Jalingo, in the interview with the Hausa service of the VOA, demanded a ransom of N100m and ten motorcycles.
We cannot continue to watch while terrorists and
bandits continue to levy war on our nation, through our porous borders. This border force should be equipped with reconnaissance, intelli- gence gathering and preven- tion enforcement. It should, therefore, have air, sea, and land capability.”
The opposition party demanded that all the perpetrators of violence be punished according to the law.
“All culprits who have levied war on Nigeria should be brought to book. It is unfathomable that several mass kidnappings have been successfully staged with the culprits not being held to account.
It is a shameful irony that a few bandit leaders that have been taken out were killed by rival gangs and not our security agencies,” he said.
According to him, security agencies should have been able to track, arrest and prosecute bandits if Sheik Gumi could detect and engage with them.
“The administration of President Buhari should completely shed weight on arrogance, lack of respect for Nigerians and its pretenses of being an island of integrity.
“He should begin to engage the citizens directly. He should address the nation on the various issues escalating tension in the land and pushing the nation farther to the tips of precipice,” he said.
On the economy, the PDP chairman told the go- vernment to stop borro- wing, adding that future generations are being mort- gaged and railroaded into an avoidable debt trap.
He called on the APC to do away with nepotism and hire experts that will “help to creatively navigate the nation through the dire eco- nomic challenges they have led the nation into.”
“The country is bleeding economically and the opera- tions of the NNPC must be investigated and over-sighted by the parliament,” he said.
On politics, Secondus said it was worrisome that the National Assembly Joint Committee on INEC, which finished its work since February 2021, is yet to lay the report in the two chambers of the National Assembly.
“We are, therefore, alarmed at the decision of the APC-led leadership of the National Assembly to sit on such an important report, contrary to their promise to pass the Electoral Act by March, which has now been shifted to June.
“It is imperative to state that INEC and the government of the United Kingdom have equally raised concerns over these undue delays, as it appears this current amendment is going the way of the Electoral Act amendment in the 8th National Assembly that was ultimately not signed by Mr. President,” the party chairman stated.
Corroborating the PDP chairman’s statement, Taraba State governor Darius Ishaku said the party had decided to put opposition aside and work with government to find lasting solutions to the security crises.
”We at the states are having it worse. We find it difficult to explain to our people why we cannot protect them – because security is not under our control,” he said.
Ishaku decried the use of the military as the first resort in internal security crisis, noting that the police should be properly equipped to place its role as the lead security outfit in internal matters.
Former Senate President Bukola Saraki also urged the federal government to listen to the demands of Nigerians on ensuring the protection of lives and property.