By Sani Idris
A group under the aegis of Unified Nigerian Youth Forum, has strongly condemned the tragic attacks on the Kaduna-Abuja Train, while calling for declaration of state of emergency on insecurity in the country.
In a signed statement issued to pressmen on Thursday in Kaduna, the President of the Forum, Comrade Abdulsalam Kazeem, lamented the series of attacks, noting that it has further exposed the inability of the current administration to keep to her campaign promises.
"The spate of insecurity in our nation is terrible and we lack appropriate words to describe it," he lamented.
He also lamented that the nation has again lost some finest brains, however noting that many where injured while others where kidnapped.
"To our greatest surprise, the Nigerian Railway Cooperation as at this moment is still unable to provide the nation the original manifest of all those on that particular train, to us in this 21st century, it is shameful, disgraceful and gross incompetence of the highest order.
"It is no news again that the current administration has failed us, but we the citizens should not allow this to consume us and the leadership, because available information at our disposal shows the nation has recently imported super tucanos and many helicopter fighting jets, however to our greatest surprises, the said super tucanos and fighter jets are no where to be found, rather some of them are diverted to be used against citizens during peaceful and lawful protest against bad governance, it is indeed a misplaced priority and wrong placement.
"As a Forum, we are not surprise of the current happenings in our country because after over six years of the current administration, they are still blaming the past government over everything, this alone has further proven that nothing good can be achieved by President Mohammadu Buhari and his co travellers, rather they will continue to feed us with their usual propaganda and conspiracy theories of blaming others for their short comings and inaptitudeness.
"This must stop now as we completely reject such tactics in totality, the primary responsibility of every government is to secure lives and properties of her citizens and anything short of that means the Government has failed in its primary purpose, therefore we are bold to say, the current administration has failed completely,"Kazeem lamented.
He called on the Government to within seven days secure the release of all those kidnapped without asking their relatives to pay the ransom and also pay all the medical bills of all those that sustain injuries and currently in the hospital and equally compensate them for lost of valuables.
He also insisted the Nigerian Railway Cooperation to provide Nigerians with the comprehensive manifest of all those on the train and the Government to immediately set up a committee to identify the families of all those that lost their lives and adequate compensation their next of kins.
"To stop further attacks, the Government should immediately bring down Rijana town and convert it to military police training ground," Kazeem suggests.
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El-Rufai calls out military for refusing to bomb bandits' hideouts
He disclosed that Kaduna is currently in a ‘State of War’.
The Governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai, has expressed sadness and frustration over the recent train attack by Bandits.
El-Rufai disclosed to Punch that the Nigerian Military knows the locations of the bandits but has refused to bomb their hideouts.
The governor said, “We have enough intelligence for us to take action. The Air Force undertakes enough ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance); and the DSS has informants all over the place.
“We know what they (terrorists) are planning. We get the reports. The problem is for the agencies to take action. Don’t wait until they attack before you respond. The Army should go after their enclaves to wipe them out. Let the Air Force bomb them.
“Before, they were categorised as bandits and if you bombed them, you would have issues with human rights organisations and international criminal courts and so on. But, now that they have been declared terrorists by the court, they can be legally killed without any consequences from international human rights organisations.”
He disclosed that Kaduna is currently in a ‘State of War’.
“We know where their camps are, we know where they are; the SSS have their phone numbers, they listen to them, and they give me the report. We know what they are planning. We shouldn’t be waiting for them to attack; why can’t we go after them?”.
The deadly train attack occurred on Monday, March 28, 2022, leading to several deaths and abductions. The development has been condemned widely with many Nigerians calling for improved security response.
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