Tension Grips Abuja, Environs Over Rising Insecurity

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Post created on 9:52 am

 

 

The wind of insecurity blowing across the country, especially in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, gathered pace yesterday, sending panic through the whole of Abuja and its environs.

This led to the shutting down of Veritas University, as the terrorists, who had written the Abuja Campus of the Nigerian Law School. also demanded ransom on 500 students, a director-general and 15 lecturers of the institution, ahead of the attack.

There are claims and counter-claims that persons suspected to be terrorists/bandits, on Tuesday night, carried out sporadic shootings at the Minister’s Hill area and the Dantata Bridge along Airport Road, Abuja.

In neighboring Nasarawa State, Governor Abdullahi Sule also ordered immediate closure of schools to avert students being attacked.

Worried senators, yesterday, gave President Muhammadu Buhari six weeks to resolve escalating security breaches or face impeachment proceedings. The Senators are of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and the New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP.

Trouble reared its head when the Senate Minority Leader, Senator Philip Aduda (PDP, FCT), who earlier came up through a motion of impeachment of President Buhari following his failure to solve the security problems in the country, was stopped by President of the Senate, Senator Ahmad Lawan.

The Opposition senators across party lines, angrily stormed out of plenary yesterday, chanting: “We are tired, Nigerians are being killed every day, Buhari must go and the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan should follow as far as worsening security situation in Nigeria is not stopped.”

African Democratic Congress, ADC, Presidential Candidate, Mr. Dumebi Kachikwu, echoed opposition senators’ call on President Muhammadu Buhari to either resign or be impeached in six weeks, if he failed to address the insecurity in the country, leading to the uproar on the floor of the Senate chamber yesterday.

This is even as the ruling party’s support group, APC Justice and Unity Forum, APC JUF, demanded immediate sack of the National Security Adviser, Major General Babagana Monguno, retd.

Reacting to terrorists and bandits’ reported plans to attack Abuja, Zamfara, Kano and Lagos and two other states, the Leader of the Pan-Yoruba Socio-political Organisation, Afenifere, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, lamented that the Federal Government has failed in securing Nigerians, adding that Nigeria needs foreign assistance to tackle its worsening insecurity situation.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government, however, assured Nigerians that it is concerned and taking measures to address the issue. It dismissed as propaganda and laughable the recent threat of the terrorists to kidnap President Buhari, a governor and federal lawmakers.

Recall that in the latest viral video released by the abductors of the Abuja-Kaduna train passengers, they had boasted that they would come after President Buhari and Governor el-Rufai.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, dismissed the threat while briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting, presided over by President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Reacting to the claims and senators’ six-week ultimatum to Buhari during the question and answer session of the briefing, Mohammed said: “Most of the questions you asked have to do with the security situation. I want to assure you that the President is aware of all these and as a matter of fact, I think tomorrow, there’s going to be another Security Council meeting.

“So, it’s not a matter the President is taking lightly and like I’ll always, say some of the measures we’re going to take are not measures that you can discuss openly here, but we’re as concerned as you are, we’re not going to abandon our responsibility.

“I want to reassure you that the government is up to the task of ensuring security. Security challenges will come anywhere in the world, the important thing is the fact that you do not lose focus and you continue to work assiduously to overcome it. I want to assure you we are going to overcome.”

However, Presidential Spokesperson, Mr. Femi Adesina, has said that senators who threatened to impeach President Buhari over rising insecurity are “the minority of minorities.”

Adesina, who spoke during an interview on Channels Television, yesterday, said the senators are wasting the country’s time.

His words: “The truth is that in this kind of scenario, minority will always have its say while the majority will have its way. You know the configuration of the National Assembly. Those who spoke today are the minority of minorities. “They would have their say as it is needful in a democracy, but it won’t go beyond that. I think it was just bravado and very sadly, security is not something you subject to bravado.

“You don’t begin to issue flippant ultimatums in something that is a matter of life and death. They know in their heart of hearts that they cannot achieve what they are saying. They are just wasting the country’s time, wasting the time of the upper chamber of the National Assembly; they know that they cannot achieve it.”