AFRICA/NIGERIA - The Bishops: "The government should stop trying to play the ostrich and take urgent steps to ensure the safety of citizens"

Tuesday, 5 April 2022 bishops violence islam

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Abuja (Agenzia Fides) - "The government should stop trying to play the ostrich as the nation profusely bleeds and take urgent steps to unmask these marauding terrorists who terrorize innocent Nigerians", say the Nigerian Bishops on the serious situation of insecurity in the Country.
Referring to the attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train on March 28 (see Fides, 30/3/2022), the Bishops underline that "the train route from Abuja to Kaduna has been the safety net for thousands of travellers commuting between both cities. Now, the terrorists have proven that no one is safe on that route anymore".
"Last week, there were also reports that over 200 terrorists on motorbikes brazenly rode through the runway of the Kaduna International Airport in broad daylight, killing at least one person (see Fides 28/3/2022)". All these occurred shortly after the incessant brutal attacks and killings by faceless terrorists in the communities of Southern Kaduna and many other parts of the Middle Belt. "The fact that all these atrocities against the people and the nation happen without a single arrest or prosecution seem to give credibility to the widespread belief that the government is complacent, helpless or compromising", they say in the statement sent to Fides. "Considering the billions of Naira appropriated for security and the fight against terrorism in recent times, it is difficult to imagine that a large number of terrorists, who unleashed terror on unarmed and law-abiding citizens, can disappear in broad daylight without a trace. It is, indeed, very hard to believe that our security apparatus lacks intelligence or the ability to fight and defeat terrorists in our nation. Nigerians are sick of flimsy excuses and bogus promises of the government to deal with terrorists''.
''Our country has long teetered on the precipice of a failed state. Government should, therefore, stop trying to play the ostrich as the nation profusely bleeds and take urgent steps to unmask these marauding terrorists and their sponsors without further delay", warn the Bishops.
Their voice was joined by that of Mohammed Sa'ad Abubakar III, Sultan of Sokoto and President of Jama'atu Nasril Islam, a union of Islamic organizations in Nigeria which in a statement denounces the continuous acts of violence which, according to him, risk being accepted "as part of our life", and have terrible effects on the psyche of Nigerians. Even the Sultan criticizes the laxity of the government claiming that "any government that is unable to protect the lives of its citizens has lost the moral justification of being in office as set out in Section 33 (1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 5/4/2022)