Ijaw group urges FG to address worsening state of insecurity

Nosa Akenzua, Asaba

The Ijaw National Congress (INC) has called on the federal government to address the worsening security situation in the country or expect self –defence by ethnic nationalities in the country, adding that Nigerians were tied of excuses.

Publicity Secretary of the group, Oyakemegbegha Ezeneobi, who spoke to journalists in Asaba on Sunday, said that the failure of the federal government to address the current security challenges might soon led to the total collapse of the country, saying that the senseless killing of innocent Nigerians on daily basis was becoming worrisome and unacceptable in a civilized society.

Ezeneobi cited the gruesome murder of the daughter of Afeniferi Leader, Chief Rueben Olakunri by suspected herdsmen on the Benin -Ore Road in Ondo state, saying that the dastardly act was condemnable.

He noted that kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry and related crimes by herdsmen have assumed alarming dimensions in the past four years of the Buhari led administration, describing the development as confrontational of the other ethnic nationalities by the herdsmen.

The IYC spokesman warned that if the situation was not checked, no one can guarantee that there would be no reprisal attacks and recourse to self -defence by Nigerians, especially in the South -South region.

Ezeneobi noted that the security situation in the nation was not as bad when Goodluck Jonathan was President, pointing out that insurgency in the North East contributed to the defeat of Jonathan in the 2015 presidential elections.

However, he wondered why Nigerians should be subjected to unmanageable state of insecurity by their fellow citizens who have no value for lives while the government which owed it a responsibility to protect them appears to be helpless and confused.

On the image of herdsmen on the Nigerian passport, Ezeneobi described it as an insult on the Nigerian state, adding that it would only remind Nigerians the horror the herdsmen had put them through in their own land.