Plateau, Benue killings: Danjuma, Atiku, Kukah, Bakare, others decry insecurity,
By Dapo Akinrefon, Chidi Nkwopara, Femi Bolaji, Luminous Jannamike & Haruna Aliyu
Former Defence Minister, Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma, retd; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, President of Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, Rev Lucius Ugorji, and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, have expressed angst against the present high level insecurity in the country.
Similarly, the Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, and Kebbi State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, expressed same sentiments, pleading with President Bola Tinubu to save Nigerians from frequent killings by bandits, herdsmen, and insurgents.
Their reactions came against the backdrop of militia’s attacks on communities in Plateau and Benue states, which have claimed no fewer than 200 lives in the last two weeks.
They expressed indignation that President Tinubu could afford to remain abroad when Nigerians were being slaughtered at home by militias, marrauding herdsmen and other criminals.
Defend yourselves against bandits, Danjuma tells Nigerians
In fact, Gen Danjuma reiterated his earlier call on Nigerians to rise and defend themselves, warning that relying solely on the government for protection was no longer realistic.
Speaking at a public event in Takum, Taraba State, weekend, Danjuma said his warning from five years ago remained relevant amid growing wave of insecurity across the country.
According to him, the recent spate of killings in Benue, Plateau, and other parts of Nigeria has once again validated his concerns.
“The warning I gave some years ago is still as valid today as it was then. Nigerians must rise and defend themselves.
“We cannot continue to sit and watch while bandits, terrorists, and criminal gangs massacre our people unchecked,” he said.
Danjuma, who hails from Takum, lamented what he described as the government’s inability to provide adequate security, stressing that the time had come for communities to take proactive steps in protecting their lives and properties.
“It is now very clear that the government alone cannot protect us. We must stand up and defend ourselves, our families, and our lands before these criminals overrun the entire country,” he added.
Tinubu gallivanting across Europe as Nigeria bleeds, he doesn’t care — Atiku
On his part former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, criticised President Tinubu for remaining in Europe as insecurity engulfs the country he leads.
In a statement issued yesterday, Abubakar claimed that Tinubu y does not care, citing cases of political leaders who cut short their trips to attend to urgent matters back home.
“The Tinubu administration has proven, time and again, to be utterly incapable, wholly incompetent, and completely devoid of any coherent ideas for tackling Nigeria’s deepening security crisis.
“This is not just my position — it is a growing consensus among political opposition leaders, respected security experts, and even members within the ruling party who, though too timid to speak publicly, confess this uncomfortable truth behind closed doors.
“The blood of innocent Nigerians continues to be spilled with appalling regularity — most recently in the Logo and Gbagir communities of Ukum LGA in Benue State.
“Yet, the Tinubu presidency remains disturbingly indifferent, displaying neither urgency nor the basic decency of public empathy.
“Leadership demands presence. In 2016, President Barack Obama cut short an important diplomatic visit to return home after five police officers were killed in a lone gunman attack.
“In 2019, President Cyril Ramaphosa abandoned a state visit to Egypt to return to South Africa amid an electricity crisis.
“Even U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, heavily criticised for fleeing to Mexico during a deadly winter storm in Texas, eventually returned and acknowledged his mistake.
“In our history, President Goodluck Jonathan returned from Equatorial Guinea in 2014 following a deadly bomb blast in Abuja.
“That is the expected minimum in moments of national trauma. Yet President Tinubu, incapable of solving Nigeria’s worsening insecurity, chooses instead to gallivant across Europe, governing Nigeria in absentia as if from a holiday perch.
“If he cannot act, the least he can do is show up. If he cannot lead with empathy, he should at least attempt to perform it. Nigeria is bleeding. Nigerians are dying. The president is nowhere to be found.
“An inept administration may not suddenly discover competence. But we will not stop calling it out. If Tinubu cannot deliver safety and dignity to Nigerians, the very least he can do is pretend to care.”
Abubakar said Tinubu must prove that he cared for all Nigerians, regardless of their ethnic, political or religious affiliation.
Nigeria bleeding, please bring us down from this cross, Kukah begs Tinubu
The Archbishop of the Catholic Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah, on his part, appealed to President Tinubu to save Nigerians from the cross of pain and hunger.
In his Easter message yesterday, the cleric called on the government to protect Nigerians from “marauders, murderers, savages and ravenous predators who threaten to overrun our nation.”
He said: “Mr. President, hunger, sickness and desolation stalk the land. We still believe removing the subsidies was the right decision.
“We note that the country now has a huge volume of resources in its domestic reserves. For over 10 years now, farming has become one of the most hazardous occupations in our country.’’ Kukah further criticised the government’s moves to assuage Nigerian’s plight by means of palliatives distribution, warning that such a move diminished the dignity of citizens.
He advised the government to “make food security a fundamental human right to all citizens” and called on the President to “please bring us down from this painful cross of hunger.”
According to him, bandits, who were brought into the country as a strategy for upstaging the government of the day and to gain power, have become embedded in every sphere of the lives of Nigerians, killing people and destroying communities.
“Today we have watched as the cancer of insecurity and violence have metastasised. Now, this cancer threatens the very foundation of our common humanity,” Kukah asserted.
He maintained that the insecurity in Nigeria was reaching a breaking point as terrorists, bandits and kidnappers cut lives short and subject their victims to the most inhuman conditions.
“Taken together, they have placed our country outside the purveyor of human civilisation. Across the country, every day, innocent citizens are kidnapped and held under the most inhuman conditions. A dark pall of death hangs languidly from north to south.
“It is impossible to find a home, a family, or a community that has not been caught in the cusp of this savagery. Now, Mr. President, Nigeria is reaching a breaking point.
“The nation is gradually becoming a huge national morgue. Mr. President, with a greater sense of urgency, hasten to bring us down from this cross of evil.
“Mr President, we all admit that you neither erected this cross nor did you affect our collective crucifixion.
“Notwithstanding, Nigerians have been dangling and bleeding on this cross of pain and mindless suffering for too long,’’ Kukah said.
We must rejig our security philosophy —Bakare
Also, Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, CGCC, Pastor Tunde Bakare, who spoke on the State of the Nation, yesterday, said Nigerians have lost faith in the capacity of the government to guarantee their security, warning that it was a dangerous trajectory.
Calling for the redesigning of the country’s security architecture, Bakare said: “In recent weeks, there have been gruesome reports of killings in several parts of the country, including Edo, Benue, Plateau, Zamfara, and Borno states.
‘’Because citizens have lost faith in the capacity of the government to guarantee their security, communities are forming poorly trained, poorly equipped and unprofessional militias, with some taking the law into their hands, heightening the risk of an inter-ethnic crisis. This is a dangerous trajectory.”
He called for the formation of zonal security councils, chaired by a governor from the respective zone.
“We must then reinstate national security federalism by activating constitutional procedures for multilevel policing, including local, state and zonal policing systems. ‘’Against this backdrop, we must redesign our security architecture by facilitating the formation of Zonal Security Councils, chaired by a governor from the respective zone, on a rotating basis.
‘’Such Zonal Security Councils, which will be formed by state and local policing systems within respective zones, must be managed by nonpartisan security experts, while the chairperson at each point in time will represent the zone at the National Security Council,’’ Bakare added.
Mindless killings in Nigeria troubling – CBCN President, Most Rev Ugorji
Also, President of the Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, Most Rev Lucius Ugorji lamented that the mindless slaughtering of innocent citizens in parts Nigeria was not only troubling but also sadly presents the nation as a country under siege.
In his Easter message in Owerri yesterday, Most Rev Ugorji, who is also the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri, said: “We are celebrating Easter this year in an atmosphere that breathes pessimism and despair.
‘’The general insecurity of life and property is heightened by the rising wave of kidnapping for ransom, and the mindless slaughtering of innocent citizens by criminal gangs.
“We seem to be a nation under siege. No place seems safe: our homes, places of
business, our highways and even the sacred precincts of places of worship.
“Government’s lack of political will to address the rising criminality across the nation is pushing the populace to resort to self-help to defend their Iives and sources of livelihood.
“Economic hardship continues to sweep across the nation on account of the withdrawal of fuel subsidies, and the floating of the national currency.
“The appalling economic condition is worsened, as our national debt continues to surge due to external and internal borrowings to finance budgets and infrastructural projects. Thus, the future of the present and future generations is mortgaged.
“This state of affairs is driving many compatriots to a feeling of cynicism. Having had myriad of shattered dreams and aborted hopes, many Nigerians groan with anguished hearts as they behold a future that promises them little or nothing.”
According to him, the prevailing disillusionment that reigns among the citizenry, mirrors the frustration felt by the apostles and disciples at the excruciating passion and humiliating death of Christ.
“After the crucifixion of their Lord and Master, they returned home with shattered dreams and hopes-dispirited, dejected, downcast and miserable.
“In this gloomy and cheerless context, the joyful and heart-warming Easter message resounds: God has raised Jesus to life. He would not permit death to triumph forever nor allow his people to die and perish in their helplessness.
“He desires that Christ and, indeed, all should have life and have it to the full. Amid our feeling of despair and disillusionment, Easter has a message of hope, namely that the darkest part of the night is the beginning of dawn.
“This message of hope underscores that even though the forces of evil might seem, at times, to have an upper hand over the good, on the long run, the good always triumphs over evil.’’
CAN blast FG over incessant killings in Nigeria
The Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in Kebbi State, in its reaction, asked service chiefs in the country to live up to the expectations of Nigerians by ensuring the security of their lives and property as constitutional rights.
State chairman of the association, Venerable Ayuba Kanta, who made the call in his Easter message in Birnin Kebbi yesterday, said if leaders escape justice on earth for failing to protect their people, the wrath of God, which is certain, awaited them.
He lamented that “unfortunate killings continue in the country, despite presence of security agencies, peace has eluded this country for no tangible reasons.”
IPAC tasks FG to secure Nigeria amid rising insecurity
In its reaction yesterday, the Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, asked the federal government to take immediate action to address the escalating insecurity in Nigeria, stressing the urgent need for safety and good governance.
The council said citizens deserved a secure environment and quality leadership, in line with the constitutional mandate that placed the security and welfare of the people as a top priority.
In a statement issued to mark Easter celebration, Dr Yusuf Dantalle, National Chairman of IPAC, expressed grave concern over the persistent violence and killings carried out by non-state actors, particularly in Plateau and Benue states.
He said: “Easter is the essence of Christianity, the hope of the faithful, signifying the supernatural resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ after His crucifixion for the sins of mankind.
“IPAC enjoins Nigerians to use this joyous occasion, which symbolises the triumph of life over death, to rededicate their lives to God and embrace Christ’s virtues of love, compassion, tolerance, and sacrifice.
“Tragically, Nigerians no longer feel secure in their own country. The incessant killings by non-state actors must stop immediately.
“Enough of the bloodshed. Citizens expect the dividends of democracy, not carnage. Security agencies must rise to the challenge and decisively tackle terrorism, insurgency, banditry, militancy, and kidnapping for ransom.
“There can be no meaningful development without public safety and order. Restoring sanity to the polity requires political will and swift action. Together, we can build a better society, but we must act urgently to ensure peace, unity, and progress for our dear nation.”
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Former Defence Minister, Lt. General Theophilus Danjuma, retd; former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, President of Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria, CBCN, Rev Lucius Ugorji, and Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Matthew Kukah, have expressed angst against the present high level insecurity in the country.
The post Plateau, Benue killings: Danjuma, Atiku, Kukah, Bakare, others decry insecurity appeared first on Vanguard News.
, , Idowu Bankole, {authorlink},, , Vanguard News, April 21, 2025, 2:02 am
