PDP condemns Kogi killings

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has condemned as dastardly and completely unacceptable, the killing of about 23 innocent Nigerians by marauders in Tawari Community in Kogi State.

In a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by National Publicity Secretary of PDP, Kola Ologbondiyan, the party urged President Muhammadu Buhari to live up to his billings and take a decisive step to end the prevalent killing and bloodletting in the country “instead of resorting to issuing pointless press releases and condolence messages without corresponding action to end the scourge.”

The PDP noted that the invasion of the helpless Tawari community and the killing spree, which reportedly lasted unrepressed for several hours, despite earlier security apprehensions in the area, pointed to government’s direct negligence to its primary duty to protect the people.

The PDP blamed the unabated killing and violence in various parts of the country on security lapses under the present administration as well as “the manifest failure of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration to decisively track down and prosecute killers and perpetrators of violence in our country.”

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The statement added: “Our party recalls that no decisive steps have been taken to prosecute the perpetrators of mass killings that shook our nation in Benue, Kaduna, Katsina, Bauchi, Taraba, Yobe, Zamfara, Kano, Niger, Rivers, Ebonyi, Abia and of course Kogi state, under the All Progressives Congress (APC) administration.

“It is indeed disheartening that the APC administration is now trying to reduce the functions of the office of the Commander-in-Chief of our nation to issuing press releases and condolences message each time marauders invade communities and massacre defenceless compatriots, instead of tracking down and dealing with the perpetrators.

“Such failures by government embolden killers, insurgents, marauders and kidnappers who have now virtually taken over our highways and holding citizens hostage in their homes, forests and caves.

“The PDP, standing shoulder to shoulder with Nigerians demands an immediate step to end wanton killings and bloodletting in our country.

“Our nation cannot afford to continue to be a large funeral parlour and a country where citizens have to contend daily with the fear and pain of death.

“Our party, therefore, charges President Buhari to brace up, heed the cries of Nigerians and immediately rejig his security architecture by injecting new blood into the system.”

While commending the patriotism of gallant troops in the front, the PDP insisted that the security administration must be rejigged to ensure an effective confrontation of the security reality across the nation.

The PDP commiserated with the victims and families of those killed in the Tawari attack and bloodlettings in other parts of the country.

The party called on security agencies in the state to beef up security in the areas as well as take up the challenge to track down the killers.