Abuja-Kaduna Killings: Sack Service Cheifs Now, ADP Tells Buhari

The Action Democratic Party, ADP, Buhari asked President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency, sack the Service Chiefs following their failure the recent attacks along the Abuja- Kaduna expressway and inability to tackle the worsening security crisis in the Country.

According to ADP, the time has come for Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; National Security Adviser, NSA, Major- General Mohammed Babagana Monguno; Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Yusuf Buratai; Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Marshal Ibok- Ete Ibas to go because they have outlived their usefulness.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja by the ADP National Chairman, Engr. Yabagi Yusuf Sani called on President Muhammadu Buhari to note that it was time to say enough of banalities, chicaneries and playing the ostrich, adding that the time has come for the APC- led Federal Government to wake up from its deep slumber and unrewarding rhetoric by finding pragmatic, workable solutions to the carnage of bloodbath and anguish of citizens now.

The statement read, “In the preceding week through to this week, the mass media were awash with report of the orgy of bloodbath visited on hapless Nigerians in various locations by marauding armed bandits and kidnappers. First to hit the headlines was the reported killing of fifteen travellers, men, women and children and the abduction of close to thirty others on the now dangerous Abuja Kaduna highway.

“Earlier, there was the reported incident of the killing of 16 citizens in multiple attacks again, by armed bandits in four local government areas of Kaduna state. There was also the most shocking of the rendition of the unceasing mayhem on twelve (12) Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASP) who were abducted while on transit between Katsina and Zamfara States.

“It amounts to insensitive triviality and chicanery by officials of the APC Federal Government that they have responded to the unfortunate incident either by way of eerie silence, denial and making statements that are best interpreted as lack of empathy to the pains and agonies of victims and their loved ones.

“Speaking in the same manner of trivializing otherwise serious national calamities, the Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi responded to the carnage on the Abuja Kaduna highway by claiming, without qualms, that: “You see, these bandits have already been degraded … once a small thing happens in a particular thing like this, we begin to talk about lack of security… we agree that there have been cases of attacks, but these are normal things; these people do whenever they have the opportunity and we are equal to the task”. Really? It sounds so much like “the technically degraded Boko Haram”!

“We in the Action Democratic Party, ADP, find all the official responses to the incidents in reference and other similar ones elsewhere in the country, offensive and grossly insensitive to the yearnings arising from the ruination of insecurity by Nigerians. Nigerians who are the victims of the catastrophes of banditry, kidnapping and insurgencies, among other forms of crimes, are simply fed-up and will accept nothing short of immediate action by those they elected to protect and secure their lives and property.

“Accordingly, the ADP is hereby reiterating the demands we have made repeatedly in the past that: President Muhammadu Buhari should rise up to the challenge by immediately overhauling and rejuvenating the nation’s security architecture in the face of these monsters of kidnapping, banditry and insurgency.

“In any case, we are hereby merely reminding the promise solemnly made on several occasions by the President and his party chieftains to make fighting insecurity as a cardinal policy of the APC.

“We are alarmed and dumbfounded that inspite of the recent gory incident President Muhammadu Buhari has not found it inevitable to immediately, without much ado, replace the present crop of security chiefs i.e., the heads of the Army, Air force, Navy and the Police.

“We share in the bewilderment of the generality of the citizenry, as to the reasons why the Commander-in-Chief has tenaciously held on to his war commanders who clearly have run out of ideas.

“In respect of the deafening silence and denial by the police high command over the abduction of twelve officers of the force, the ADP strongly calls for a thorough investigation over the sad and unfortunate incident. It is frightening spectacle that such a large number of policemen can be subdued and taken-in by a ragtag band of marauding urchins and hoodlums, what fate then can easily befallbthe ordinary citizens?

“Enough of banalities, chicaneries and playing the ostrich! It is time the APC- led Federal Government wakes up from its deep slumber and unrewarding rhetoric by finding pragmatic, workable solutions to the carnage of bloodbath and anguish of citizens now.”