As May 29 presidential inauguration day is getting closer amidst galloping urban criminality, banditry and kidnapping, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday alleged that some of the bandits arrested in states such as Katsina, are not Nigerians but aliens, meaning that the nation is becoming unsafe.
While asking the Nigeria Police to investigate the matter, the opposition party advised President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately call of his ‘private visit’ to the United Kingdom and return to Nigeria to address “the deteriorating security challenges in the country.”
National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, in a statement averred that “It was completely unacceptable for Buhari to abandon his responsibilities as the Commander-In-Chief,” to pursue “unexplained private matters abroad,” at a time bandits, marauders and insurgents seize, maim, kidnap and kill in Nigeria.
Recall that the Police had earlier in the week, disclosed that whereas about 1,071 persons had been kidnapped since January, it also noted that within the period, over 600 were killed by bandits, a statistics which the Director General of National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) boss, Yemi Kale had analysed to mean that on a daily basis, eight Nigerians are killed while about 12 kidnapped.
According to the PDP, “President Buhari’s inattention has emboldened insurgents and bandits to continue to over-run communities, unleash mayhem and bloodletting on citizens in Borno, Zamfara, Yobe, Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba, Kaduna, Benue, Kogi and other states of the federation, including Buhari’s home state, Katsina.
“Bandits are having a field day, pillaging communities in Katsina State; killing several persons and abducting the District Head of his hometown, Daura, Musa Umar; the father in-law of Mr. President’s security aide.”
“Within this period, marauders invaded communities in Adamawa and killed no fewer than 26 innocent Nigerians; many more have been killed in Borno, Taraba, Benue and Zamfara states, where bandits also reportedly attacked Government Girls Secondary School, Moriki, and kidnapped some school girls.
PDP averred that “While the Buhari administration remains virtually nonchalant, kidnappers have taken over many of our major highways, with hundreds of compatriots held in captivity in forests along Kaduna-Abuja, Taraba-Katsina-Ala and other highways in the country.”