Insecurity: Protests in Abuja, Katsina as Masari, elders meet Buhari

There were protests in Abuja and Katsina state on Tuesday over the insecurity in the country.

The Northern Alliance Movement converged on Unity Fountain in Abuja, protesting attacks across the nation. 

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The chairman of the movement, Yahuza Getso, expressed disappointment in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

“People are being killed every now and then. Women are being raped, children are being killed. We’re tired of what’s happening. Mr President, we didn’t vote for Garba Shehu nor Femi Adesina; come and address us. 

“We’re not happy with the way you’re governing this country. Nowhere is safe! People are murdered on the Abuja-Kaduna Expressway and all the roads in northern Nigeria.” 

Civil society groups in Katsina State also on Tuesday protested over killings in the state and other parts of Nigeria.

They were, however, dispersed by the police.

The protest took place at Kofar Soro Roundabout and emir’s palace.

Addressing journalists, one of the conveners of the protest, National Secretary of Muryar Talaka,  Bishir Dauda Sabuwar Unguwa, said the protest was to draw the attention of the governments “to take the right steps towards addressing the degenerating and devilitatin challenge of insecurity in the North and the country as a whole”.  

“Today nobody is safe, even those living in the cities. We are all aware of the gruesome murder of the Katsina State Commissioner of Science and Technology, Dr Rabe Nasir, which shows that even those living in the cities are not safe.

“Many are still held in captivity, in kidnappers’ dens, many are killed. You cannot even travel from Katsina to Sokoto through Jibia road due to activities of Kidnappers.

“Today, we even have a parallel government run by bandits’ warlords in some parts of the country. So we want to draw the attention of the governments to do the needful as we join our brothers and sisters protesting all over the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, Katsina State Governor Aminu Masari yesterday led a delegation of elders from his state to a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The elders included Senator Abba Ali (Buhari’s classmate), Alhaji Aliyu Mohammed, Senator Mamman A. Danmusa, Alh Nalado Y. Sarkin Sudan and Alhaji Ahmed Yusuf.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, Masari stressed the need for all the states in the North West to work together to defeat bandits.

“I think what is most important for us to succeed in fighting these bandits is for all of us the states, especially the north-western states to take the pains and work together to make sure that we block all the loopholes.

“But if one state has a policy and another has a different one, certainly they (bandits) will always be moving from one state to another. Luckily enough, we’re already working closely with states that border us, like Nasarawa and Niger, to bring the problem to a manageable and tolerable level.”

Masari, while speaking on the recent killing of one of his commissioners, said: “The incident we had last week had nothing to do with banditry attack, it was purely an assassination by unknown killers, which the police and other security agencies are working round the clock to unravel what happened.

“Because my commissioner was killed by an unknown assassin and not a single pin was stolen in his house, so, you could see that this was a pure crime that has to be fully investigated for us to know the root causes and why.”

Masari noted that “if we’re talking about banditry, certainly, we’ve seen some improvement; we cannot say normalcy has returned, but there’s improvement.”

By Muideen Olaniyi, Dalhatu Liman (Abuja) & Tijjani Ibrahim (Katsina)