Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar. Twitter
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has called on the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration to stop giving excuses and end the killings in Nigeria.
In a statement on Tuesday to commemorate Democracy Day, he said the history of Somalia, Burundi, and Rwanda should be “strident warning to all of us”.
Atiku said: “Let us spare some time to reflect and to mourn all those murdered in the ongoing needless killings across our dear country.
“These Nigerians have been killed in the continuing murderous rampage of criminal elements across the country but especially in Borno and Yobe, and the Benue River Valley, stretching from Adamawa through Taraba to the confluence of Kogi and Benue, and including Nasarawa, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, and Zamfara.
“Others have been killed by armed robbers, kidnappers, cattle rustlers and other marauding bandits. The killings have even extended to sacred places of worship where innocent Imams and Christian clergy and worshipers are slaughtered.
“This carnage has gone on for too long and must stop. In a letter that I sent to the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria recently on these killings, I pointed out, and I repeat it here, that only government can stop these senseless killings if we are to avoid major and further damage to the fabric of our fragile unity.
“The recent history of Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi and Central African Republic, among others, should be a strident warning to all of us, especially those in government whose primary responsibility is the protection of the citizens, but who have been dithering, making contradictory and ridiculous excuses and engaging in diversionary finger-pointing.”