Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Presidential Candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the reported massacre and mass abduction in Borgu Local Government Area of Niger State, describing it as another bloody indictment of Nigeria’s failing security architecture.
In a statement by his media office, Atiku said reports that more than 40 Nigerians were slaughtered and scores abducted represented a familiar tragedy: terrorists attack, kill and disappear before security forces arrive.
“What happened in Borgu is a national disgrace. Nigerians cannot continue counting corpses while the government counts billions supposedly spent on security.
“Worse still, it has been over 100 days since schoolchildren and 38 other civilians were kidnapped. A hundred days in captivity means a hundred nights of parents wondering whether their children are hungry, sick, frightened or even alive.
“Now, before those families have found closure, Borgu is bleeding. How many Nigerians must die before Tinubu accepts that his security architecture is failing?”
Atiku said enormous security appropriations meant little if farmers could not reach their farms, travellers feare the highways and terrorists could invade communities and abduct citizens almost at will.
“The question is no longer how much Nigeria spends on security, but what security Nigerians are getting for the money.
“The Atiku security plan rests on one principle: the balance of terror must belong overwhelmingly to the Nigerian state. Criminals should fear the state; citizens should not fear being abandoned by it.
“This requires more than boots. It requires boots, hardware, technology and intelligence working as one system. Terrorists assemble, weapons move, money changes hands and camps are maintained before attacks occur. Those footprints must become intelligence, and intelligence must become action.”
Atiku said his administration would overhaul intelligence coordination, deploy surveillance and geospatial technology, strengthen rapid-response capabilities and establish measurable performance benchmarks for security commanders.