Senate President David Mark yesterday took stock of the unabating insecurity in the country and declared that insurgents may overrun the country.
He spoke as Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakr and the Campaign for Democracy condemned the Nasarawa killings.
A statement by Chief Press Secretary, Paul Mumeh in Abuja quoted the Senate President as warning that unless immediate steps were taken to arrest the worsening situation, the country may fall prey to insurgents.
He condemned in strong terms the attack and killing of police and other security operatives in Nasarawa state by some cultists and submitted that “nobody, no nation no matter how weak would live to accept such heinous crime”.
Mark wondered: “What is happening to us as a people is strange and condemnable. How did we degenerate to this level where every one became a brothers’ hater instead of being our brothers’ keeper?
“The situation calls for soul searching. We must re-examine ourselves. We must look inwards.”
He noted that there could be foreign collaborators but the foreigners would not succeed if there are no willing tools internally.
The President of the Senate implored any aggrieved persons or groups to explore many established channels including the National Assembly to seek redress instead of resorting to violence.
He lamented that the insecurity situation has made life uncomfortable for Nigerians and reduced sacred human life to something insignificant.
While sympathizing with the victims of various attacks in Borno, Yobe, Nasarawa and Benue States, the Senate President urged security operatives to go back to the drawing board and restrategize for effective operation.
He also suggested a working synergy between and among security agencies, saying that such cooperation would plug any loophole or lapses and ultimately yield better result.
Mark said: “We must remove sentiments and be able to separate issues from crimes or criminalities. Offenders must be seen to be punished to serve as a deterrent to others.”
He stated that the siege Nigerians have been subjected to on account of the insurgencies and other violent crimes in the recent times are avoidable if “we put our houses in order.”
“Everyone must rise up to defend our fatherland instead of leaving security in the hands of security operatives alone.”
President-General of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) and the Sultan expressed shock over the “cruel and merciless” attacks on innocent people at Bama in Borno State and Alakyo in Nasarawa State.
Alhaji Abubakar described the attacks as unfortunate when the Baga massacre which, he said, should have been the last in such attacks still fresh in memory.
A statement signed by JNI Secretary General Dr Khalid Abubakar Aliyu said: “The JNI therefore calls on all and sundry to be wary of happenings around them and take proactive measures by reporting to appropriate authorities doubtful persons and events. Equally, the JNI calls on all citizens to give their unflinching support to the constituted Federal Government Amnesty Committee, whose mandate is not only recommending amnesty but dialoguing with insurgents towards opening doors for the restoration of peace and stability in the North and Nigeria at large.”
The CD condemned the escalation of wanton extra judicial killings in the country.
The group’s president, Dr. Joe Odumakin, who described the death of policemen in the last one week in Borno and Nassarawa states as a key characteristic of a failed state. She said government has shown a lack of capacity or willingness to secure the lives of its citizens.
She said although the incessant killings of civilians. “It gives a sense of total hopelessness to the chaos that is going on in the country.
“The high rate of casualties on the part of policemen witnessed in just one week has not been recorded in most of the wars fought in recent history, which confirms the notion that Nigeria is presently at war.
“The vulnerability of security forces to the seeming superior power of terrorists, removes whatever confidence the civilian population has in the state to guarantee security of lives and property and by extension a clear demonstration of the failure of state.”
