Insecurity: Peter Obi condemns killings across states

A former governor of Anambra State and chieftain of the opposition African Democratic Congress (ADC) has condemned the reported killings of 41 Nigerians in Katsina, Adamawa, Kaduna and Benue states within the past 48 hours.

In a post on his X handle on Tuesday, one of the leading presidential aspirants on the platform of the ADC described the development as a damning indictment of collective failure of leadership.

He said no nation can develop under the weight of such persistent insecurity and human tragedy.

Part of the post titled “A Decaying Nation Crying for Leadership” read: “What we have witnessed across our country in just the past 48 hours is not only tragic, it is utterly unacceptable and a damning indictment of our collective failure of leadership.

“From the reported killings in Katsina, Adamawa, Kaduna and Benue States, to the gruesome murder of an entire family in Plateau State, and the heartbreaking abduction of innocent children in Kogi State, one of the incidents involves children conveying their mother’s dead body for burial. Nigeria is bleeding. We are fast becoming a nation where human life is treated as expendable, where citizens live in fear, and where the basic duty of government, to protect lives and property, is repeatedly neglected.

“Eleven innocent Nigerians were killed in Katsina State. Seven more in Benue State. Twenty-three in Adamawa State in just one day. An entire family was brutally murdered in Plateau State. Twenty-four children were abducted from an orphanage in Kogi State, and 10 more children were taken in Kaduna State, all within 48 hours.

“These are not mere statistics; they are our fellow Nigerians, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters, whose lives have been brutally cut short or violently disrupted.

“This cannot continue. The normalisation of these horrors is itself a crisis. We must ask, with all sense of urgency and responsibility: where is the leadership? Where is the coordination, the competence, and the compassion required to confront this menace decisively?

“My heart goes out to all the grieving families across these states. I pray for divine comfort for those who have lost loved ones and for the safe and immediate return of all abducted children.

“A new Nigeria is not just a slogan; it has become an urgent necessity. A new Nigeria is possible.”