Group Chides Lai Mohammed Over Security Assessment

Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has described as highly irresponsible, irrational and vacuous, the claim credited to the Information and Culture Minister Alhaji Lai Mohammed to the effect that the nation’s insecurity challenge is no longer severe.
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, the National Coordinator of the human right body, who challenged the statement credited to the Minister, argued that the Minister must be living outside this planet to have conjured such fake news.
He urged the minister to take a round trip to “Zamfara to Katsina, Borno and then back to Abuja through the Lokoja/Kwali Abuja dreaded Federal Highway after stopping over at the Okene highway near Ajaokuta in Kogi State. If the minister is able to embark on this journey which should be televised live on NTA, Trust television and AIT, then maybe his statement about improved security may be listened to by right thinking human beings that are rational.”
Continuing he said: “We find it completely ludicrous but insensitive, reckless and unacceptable that in the face of the heightened security challenges confronting Nigerians including the 28 bus passengers in Ondo that were just kidnapped into the Ondo forests by suspected armed Fulani herdsmen, the holder of the office of information minister will continue to assault our sensibilities and spread fake news.”
Also, HURIWA recalled that few days ago, elders of rural communities in Katsina State lamented that men in their villages now work as slaves on farms ‘owned’ by bandits, even as the hoodlums have developed a taste for constantly raping married women and teenage girls.
Quoting a BBC Hausa Service report, Onwubiko said the elders described the series of invasions and atrocities committed by the bandits as mind-boggling. The elders under the aegis of the Movement to Secure Katsina Citizens called on all “patriotic citizens” to contribute to the efforts to tackle the security problems in the state.
Speaking on behalf of the others in the interview with BBC Hausa Service, one of the elders, Dr Bashir Kurfi, noted that apart from the senseless killing of innocent people and cattle theft, raping of women and teenage girls by the bandits was now rampant in the communities.
Kurfi said: “It is not hearsay; quite often, we come across victims of rape, women who were raped and even mutilated by these bandits.
“Even more worrisome, these bandits will knock at the doors of villagers and ask the men to bring out their wives and daughters. These hapless men have no option but to obey or they will face the music.
“The wife or daughter will go with the bandits for one or two weeks and returned to their homes after being sexually abused or raped. This is the calamity that has befallen most of our communities.
“I recall one day when we took nine women to the hospital after being gang-raped by 40 bandits. The hospital we took them to advised us to take some of the women to VVF centres for proper care.”
He expressed his dismay at the way the bandits were inflicting pains on the people “as if we don’t have a government.”
He said: “We all know these bandits move around with motorcycles. Where are they getting the bikes? They move around with AK-47 rifles. How did they get them? Where are they getting the drugs they are taking? What is really happening? Why is the government aloof? These are pertinent questions that are waiting for answers.”
The elders also condemned the position of some state governments who are signing peace deals with bandits without results.
Besides HURIWA narrated that a newly posted Divisional Police Officer (DPO) to Birnin Gwari local government area of Kaduna State, was kidnapped and for weeks has been in chains.