Insecurity: Group blast Buhari as PDP calls for his resignation

As Security operatives rescue 80 pupils of Islamic school in Katsina  

By Our Editors

The Global Center for Media and Human Empowerment(GCMHE)on Saturday chided the president Muhammadu Buhari led government for its failure to protect Nigerians from the clutches of bandits,Boko Haram and Herdsmen attacks.

The Acting Director-General Charles Ejoh made the statement in Jos and made available to EAGLE EYE WATCH through the group Media Director on the heels of fresh attack by Boko Haram and bandits in Borno and Katsina States.

The group condemned the APC government and called for outright resignation of president Muhammadu Buhari,saying”enough is enough” of the insensitivity and maladministration.

“We find it extremely funny that with the unabated killings and abductions of  innocent Nigerians in virtually all parts of the country president Muhammadu Buhari and his co-travellers are still sitting comfortable in Aso Rock the country’s seat of power. To me there is no better way to describe Nigeria’s melo-drama than to conclude that our pathetic and precarious situation can be liken to the words of Biblical Apostle Paul that Nigeria is” bewitched” by the demonism of the APC led government”.

“We are calling on all well meaning Nigerians to prepare for battle against the forces of darkness and for the media to rise to its constitutional responsibilities. It is appalling to see some so called media professionals romancing with politicians that have impacted negatively to the country’s quagmire. Journalists are not praise singers nor  public relation officers to Buhari’s administration they are watch dog of the society and it takes only the courageous to practice the profession. I mean for goodness sake Journalism is a profession of nobility”.

 Recall that at least 35 travelers were abducted Friday evening by gunmen who ambushed commuters along the Maiduguri-Damaturu Highway, witnesses and security sources have said.

The abductions, the latest in a series of attacks on travellers on the key highway, followed an earlier assault on Friday, according to witnesses. Not less than 50 cases of abduction of travellers have occurred along the same highway in 2020 alone.

Similarly scores of Islamic school students are feared to have have been abducted by gunmen Saturday night at Mahuta community, in Dandume Local Government Area of Katsina State.

The school, also referred to as Makarantan Islamiyya in local parlance, had held a maulud procession at Unguwar Al-Kasim, a neighbouring village, and the students were on their way home when they were kidnapped.

A local online newspaper, Katsina Post as well as sources familiar with the incident, confirmed the development early Sunday morning.

It was learnt that vigilante groups and other sympathisers in the area, have since commenced rescue operations, even as the number of abducted students is said to be on the high side.

Meanwhile a combined team of security operatives on Saturday rescued 80 abducted pupils of Hizburrahim Islamiyya, an Islamic school in Mahuta, Dandume Local Government Area of Katsina State.

This was made public in a statement issued on Sunday in Katsina by the Police Public Relations Officer in Katsina State, Gambo Isah.

The statement said in part: “On 19/12/2020 about 2200hrs, a distress call was received by DPO Dandume that some Islamiyya students of Hizburrahim Islamiyya, Mahuta village, Dandume, Katsina state, numbering about 80, while on their way back from Maulud occasion celebrated at Unguwan-Alkasim, Dandume to Mahuta, were accosted by bandits.

” The bandits had already kidnapped four persons and rustled 12 cows from Danbaure village, Funtua, and were trying to escape with them into the forest.

“On receipt of the report, the DPO  led Operations Puff Adder, Sharan Daji and  Vigilante group to the area and engaged the bandits in a fierce gun duel.”

The statement said the team succeeded in dislodging the bandits and rescued all the kidnapped victims as well as recovered all the 12 rustled cows.

It said search parties are still combing the area with a view to arresting the injured bandits or recovering dead bodies while investigation is on going.

The incident comes on the heels of the abduction of some 344 students of Government Science Secondary School (GSSS) Kankara last week Friday.

In a related development the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Saturday, also join forces to pressurize President Muhammadu Buhari to resign over his comment on the failure of the service chiefs to tame the deteriorating security situation in the country.

The national chairman of the opposition party, Uche Secondus, said this in a statement signed by his Special Adviser on Media, Ike Abonyi.

President Buhari had on Thursday admitted that the efforts of Nigeria’s security chiefs were not enough to tackle the myriads of security situation across the country.

Mr Buhari who spoke through the National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, while addressing state house correspondents, said he expects the service chiefs to “henceforth live up to expectations.”

The president’s comments come on the heels of the abduction of hundreds of schoolboys who were kidnapped from their boarding school at the Government Science Secondary School, Kankara, Katsina State, on December 11.

The over 300 kidnapped boys have been freed and reunited with their families on Friday, after spending nearly a week in captivity in the hands of their kidnappers.

The boys were rescued after negotiations between the kidnappers and the government.

President Buhari, who met the rescued schoolboys on Friday in Katsina, congratulated the children for their safe return.

In reaction, Mr Secondus urged the president that rather than the “belated lamentation on deteriorating security situation in the country, he should resign and give way to competent hand to govern the country.”

“The PDP boss said that rather than the belated lamentations after 67 months in power that he has been unable to perform, he should do the honourable thing by resigning and giving way for fresh ideas and new vitality.

“Prince Secondus recalls the advice of President Buhari while in opposition in 2013 to the then President Goodluck Jonathan saying ‘Jonathan should vacate and give way to a competent hand to govern the country’.

“I find it extremely unacceptable that after the President disregarded all wise counsels to rejig the nation’s security architecture for effectiveness, he is now turning round to admit their failure and blame operatives whom he kept even in their apparent inefficiency,” Mr Secondus was quoted as saying in a statement by the party.

The PDP has always been in the vanguard of championing the resignation  of President Muhammadu Buhari over the worsening security situation across the country.

The party last November made a similar call after the killing of over 40 farmers in Borno State by the Boko Haram.