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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, has raised the alarm over the worsening insecurity in the country, warning that no one is safe under the President Bola Tinubu’s administration.
Reacting to the kidnap of the sister and twin nephews of former Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, in Ibadan, Oyo State, yesterday, Atiku implored the government to jettison its reactive approach to security issues.
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, charged the Tinubu administration to implement a comprehensive, intelligence-driven strategy capable of dismantling kidnapping syndicates and securing vulnerable communities.
Atiku spoke as gunmen reportedly attacked an immigration office in Ogbomoso, Oyo State on Tuesday night.
It was learnt that the officers on duty were dispossessed of their guns.
However, efforts made to get a reaction from the Public Relations Officer of the State Police command proved abortive as of the time of filing this report yesterday.
Condemning the abduction, Atiku urged security agencies to deploy every available resource towards ensuring their safe rescue and the swift arrest and prosecution of those responsible.
He stated that the incident underscores the depth of the country’s security crisis, noting that “it is shocking that such a brazen abduction reportedly occurred in the heart of Ibadan at the bustling Challenge Bus Stop, one of the city’s busiest and most recognizable locations.”
Atiku stated that the fact that kidnappers could strike in such a prominent public space without fear of interception speaks volumes about the worsening security situation in the country.
“While millions of ordinary Nigerians have endured the horrors of kidnapping for years, this latest incident raises a question that the Tinubu administration can no longer evade: if government officials have become desensitized to the suffering of ordinary citizens, should they not at least be alarmed when insecurity reaches the doorstep of one of their own?
“Across the country, families are being subjected to unimaginable trauma as kidnappers and other criminal elements operate with growing audacity. Schoolchildren are abducted from classrooms, farmers are driven from their lands, travelers are kidnapped on highways, and entire communities are held hostage by fear. Yet, despite these grim realities, the government’s response has too often been characterized by excuses, propaganda, and palliatives rather than decisive action.
“If the endless cries of ordinary Nigerians were not enough to spur this government into action, one would have expected that an attack affecting the family of a former member of the administration would finally underscore the urgency of the crisis. Sadly, insecurity has become so pervasive that no one is truly insulated from its consequences.
“Kidnappers do not ask for party membership cards before striking. They do not distinguish between APC members and opposition supporters. They do not care whether their victims are ministers, former ministers, traders, teachers, students, or farmers. The same insecurity that has turned the lives of ordinary Nigerians into a daily nightmare is now knocking on doors many in government may have assumed were beyond its reach.”
The former Vice President, while stating that a government that cannot guarantee the safety of its citizens is failing in its most fundamental obligation, lamented that” Nigerians now budget for ransom payments the same way they budget for school fees and where parents live in constant fear of receiving devastating phone calls about their loved ones.”
In another statement, Atiku charged President Tinubu to immediately direct all security and intelligence agencies to deploy every available resource towards securing the unconditional release of the abducted Oyo pupils and teachers.
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He said the abduction was another tragic reminder that under the Tinubu administration, insecurity has allegedly become a way of life.
He noted that the reported dispatch of officials with bags of rice and other palliatives to families of the abductees, mirrors alleged moral bankruptcy and alarming cluelessness of the government.
According to him, “The cruelty of such a response is difficult to comprehend. Parents whose children have been torn from their arms are not asking for rice. Mothers who do not know whether their children are hungry, sick, traumatised or even alive are not demanding palliatives. Fathers who wake up every morning praying for a phone call announcing the safe return of their children are not looking for handouts. What these families need is action.
“What they need is leadership. What they need is a government capable of rescuing their children and bringing the criminals responsible to justice.” He lamented that Nigeria has gradually descended into a country where the lives of innocent citizens appear to count for little, while those entrusted with power continue to offer propaganda and token gestures in place of real solutions.
“It is a damning verdict on this government that while criminals operate with audacity and freedom, innocent schoolchildren are abducted from their classrooms and the official response is the distribution of rice. This is not governance. This is an abdication of responsibility. It is a tragic confession of failure by an administration that seems increasingly overwhelmed by the very duties it swore to perform.”
The former Vice President, while noting that every kidnapping leaves behind wounds that cannot be measured in statistics, stated that behind every abducted child is a mother unable to sleep, a father battling despair, siblings living in fear and a community traumatised by uncertainty.
He said: “These children are not numbers on a government spreadsheet. They are the hopes of families. They are the future of our nation. Every hour they spend in captivity is an hour too many. Every day that passes without their rescue is a stain on the conscience of those charged with protecting them.”
Atiku warned that the normalisation of insecurity under the All Progressives Congress, APC-led Federal Government has pushed Nigeria into a dangerous reality where citizens now live under constant fear.
“Today, many Nigerian parents budget for ransom the same way they budget for school fees. Farmers fear their farms. Travellers fear the highways.
“Communities fear the night. Yet, those in power continue to congratulate themselves while innocent Nigerians bear the consequences of their incompetence. A nation cannot survive when its citizens are abandoned to criminals and its leaders respond with public relations gimmicks.
“The government must stop treating these tragedies as routine news items. The captors must be hunted down, arrested, prosecuted and made examples of. There must be consequences for those who prey on innocent Nigerians. Anything less will only embolden other criminal gangs and place more communities in danger.
“A government that cannot protect schoolchildren has failed one of the most basic tests of leadership.
A government that responds to abductions with rice instead of rescue operations sends a dangerous signal that it has run out of ideas.
“If this administration can no longer guarantee the safety of Nigerian children, then it should have the humility to admit its failure rather than insult grieving families with token palliatives.
“Bring the children home. Bring their teachers home. Arrest their captors. Secure our schools. Restore confidence in the ability of the state to protect its citizens. Anything less is unacceptable,” he stated.
