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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Arewa Youth Assembly staged a protest on Wednesday at the National Assembly over the spate of killings and abductions by gunmen across the country.
The spokesman of the group, Aliyu Mohammed, said they were dismayed over the unrelenting attacks, killings and kidnap of Nigerians in their homes, farms, major highways and trains by gunmen.
Mohammed said the development has led to an unprecedented level of food scarcity in the country.
He said that it is unfortunate that the number of Nigerians that had either been kidnapped and killed, in the country, between January and June 2022 is allegedly more than the number of those killed in the Ukraine/Russia war.
According to him, “the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST), a project of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) of the United States, at the weekend revealed that activities of violent non-state actors had claimed no fewer than 5,222 lives nationwide between January and June 2022 alone. This figure is almost higher than the casualties recorded in Ukraine which is officially at war with Russia.
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“We are aware that the government, under the Leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari has procured more weapons than any other Government in our recent history in response to the security challenges bedevilling our country.
“However, Nigerians have not been killed, kidnapped and desecrated like today. It is an ironic case of the more the security budget, the more Nigerians are killed and kidnapped”.
Mohammed recalled that recently terrorists “equally ambushed and killed some officers of the Brigade of Guard to Mr President and also issued a notice of their resolve to kidnap our President Muhammadu Buhari and Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State. This is unfortunate and unimaginable in the history of nationhood.
“Just recently, Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State wrote a Memo to President Muhammadu Buhari informing him of parallel government has been formed in his state.
“This also is in concordance with the similar situation in the southern part of the country where citizens are not allowed to come out on Mondays to pursue their businesses, thereby, further impoverishing them. All this is because there is a serious defect in the security architecture of our country.
“It is on the strength of the above background that we are compelled to converge here to add our voices to those of others in drawing the world’s attention to the ceaseless ocean of blood that is flowing in our country.”
