The Sultan of Sokoto-led Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has condemned the recent burning to death of innocent travellers by bandits in Sokoto State and called on the government to rise up to its responsibility of protecting the people.
The Secretary-General of JNI, Dr Khalid Aliyu, said in a statement on Thursday in Kaduna that the spate of killings in the country was unacceptable.
He said government must begin to hold security personnel accountable for any attack on citizens where they were deployed.
“Nigerians are desperately yearning for concrete actions against all forms of criminalities.
“Silence is not golden given the most unfortunate spate of horrendous butchery of human lives in the Nigerian state,” Aliyu said.
Read Also: Sokoto confirms 23 deaths as bandits attack travellers
He stressed that the “Federal Government should be seen to be proactive on security matters, as well as assure and assuage citizens’ fears at critical moments of grief”.
Aliyu described the burning to death of the defenceless travellers as “utterly disgusting, heart-rending and unprecedented”.
“JNI condemns in the strongest terms this senseless and barbaric act, along with other equally disheartening bloodletting and carnage.
“Likewise, all other acts of arson attacks, attempted prison jailbreaks, bomb blasts in Oyo, Kogi, Plateau, Yobe and Borno states and many of such reprehensible acts, stand condemned by the JNI.”
The JNI secretary general urged Northern Governors to rise up and collectively end the new normal eroding the heritage of the north.
“Government needs to wake up as citizens are becoming more and more agitated.
“Government should take the bull by the horn by prosecuting promoters of hate speech and tame the rising cases of banditry in Nigeria, otherwise it will become a norm that cannot be challenged.
“While we continue to express our sincere condolences to all the victims of these unfortunate killings, we are calling on politicians and non-governmental organisations to strengthen their cooperation and synergy to find lasting solution to the spates of killings and destructions.
“We equally call on citizens to continue striving for peaceful co-existence and eschew every act of crime, ” the JNI secretary general said.