By Adesina Soyooye
From the Government of the United States of America, USA, came a message to President Buhari to arrest the inexplicable killings in Nigeria, and especially, in the North.
And, as if in reaction, President Buhari on Thursday, told Service Chiefs that he wanted no more excuses for their inability to stop the rivers of blood flowing in Nigeria.
All these came as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said that the All Progressives Congress, APC, has questions to answer on the unprecedented killings and bloodletting in Katsina State. The party has, therefore, questioned the arrest, by the Government, of organizers of a peaceful protest against the unchecked mass killing by bandits and insurgents in Katsina and other parts of the country.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, the PDP described as absurd, but revealing, that the APC-led government would arrest, harass and detain victims of the bandits but choose to negotiate, hobnob with, and even pay money to the assailants.
Angry protesters had in the past couple of days taken over the streets of Katsina, in protest against the unprecedented slaughter of innocent and helpless citizens in the North, and especially, most recently, in Katsina State.
As at Tuesday, over 3,000 Katsina people have taken over a school, where they have automatically become Internally Displaced People.
On Tuesday, the State Governor, Masari, helplessly told his subjects that he had failed them, since he was no longer able to protect them.
On Wednesday, President Muhammadu Buhari, sent his Security big shots, led by the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Munguno, to the state for an on the spot assessment. They held a closed door meeting with the Governor, Aminu Masari.
Warning Service Chiefs on Thursday, Buhari, who is from Katsina State, said that he would no longer tolerate their excuses on the spate of killings. “Your best is not enough”, he warned.
Not a few people, including the National Assembly and its leadership, had asked the President, in the face of the intolerable security situation in the country, to change his Service Chiefs. The calls have, since been ignored.
A couple of weeks ago, a Senator from Sokoto State, said on the floor of the Senate, that his people now rely on soldiers from the Niger Republic, for protection.
On Wednesday, the United State’s Government weighed in, asking President Buhari to put a stop to the unprecedented killings in Nigeria, especially, in the North.
In its statement denouncing the arrest of the leaders of the Protest in Katsina, the PDP noted that:
“This arrest further raises demands for the APC and its governors, particularly, those who openly confessed to have had contacts, negotiations and financial dealing with the bandits, to come clean on their alleged links with insurgents and marauders.”
Governor Masari had, in the wake of the killings by the bandits, reached out to them, and both parties reached a peace agreement. In one unforgettable moment, the Governor took a photograph with a leader of the bandits, who happily slung his AK47 rifle across his shoulders. Masari lapped it up.
The agreement has since broken down.
At one time too, Governor Nasir El-Rufai, had disclosed that he paid the bandits who killed scores of people in Southern Kaduna to stop them from further killings.
But the PDP says both decision were wrong. The party noted that:
“Such actions by the APC administration, in addition to utterances of its leaders, have continued to dishearten Nigerians while emboldening bandits and insurgents to continue to pillage our communities, hold towns to ransom and visit all manner of violence on vulnerable Nigerians in various parts of the country.”
The PDP recalled utterances by certain APC leaders, including asking victims of attacks not to revenge even in the face of poor security presence in affected communities as well as admission by government that the marauders were mercenaries from the Sahel region and armed deserters from late Muammah Gadaffi’s Libya.
The party also reminded Nigerians that “the APC and its leaders are yet to explain the whereabouts of the thugs they imported as political mercenaries from neighboring countries, particularly Chad and Niger Republic to support the party’s bid during the build-up to the 2019 general elections.”
It continued: “Furthermore, the APC and its leaders are yet to answer how marauders who were already pushed to the fringes by the PDP administration, resurged under their watch.
“Nigerians can recall that prior to the 2015 general elections, insurgency had been extensively compressed, leading to the successful conduct of the general election in all the 774 local governments across the country.
“It is, therefore, clear that the constant narrative by the APC that some local governments were under the control of insurgents, when it took over office, is a mere propaganda.
“The situation in Katsina and other Northern states ought to be seen by the Buhari administration as a patriotic call to wake up to its responsibilities and take a decisive action to flush out the bandits and secure our nation.”
However, angered by the call by the protesters on the President and Governor Masari to resign if they could not protect them, Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant on Media to the President, had told them: “You are lucky that this is not a dictatorship”
But the leaders of the protesters have, allegedly been arrested.
For a solution, the PDP counselled the President “to go beyond endless meetings within the comfort of the Aso Presidential villa and, for once, lead from the front in this fight against insurgency and banditry in our country.”
