The Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, said the security agents are now indifferent to the activities of bandits.
Abubakar made this claim in Abuja on Thursday at the second quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), with the theme ‘Media and Effective Nation Building’.
Expressing concern about the state of insecurity with regard to banditry, Sultan said the menace receded during the just concluded election but is now restored to its previous position.
He added that there is a new dimension to it, saying these days, security agents are not committed to face bandits instead make jest of victims.
His word, “Throughout the campaigns and the elections, we never had these cases of insecurity. Suddenly, after the elections, the killings continued across Niger, Plateau, Kaduna and other places.
“Imagine a situation where bandits would invade a community, kill people and destroy their properties, with little or no resistance from the security officials, only for the security officials to appear long after the attacks and perhaps, to mock the people or look at the ashes of destroyed items.
“Few days ago, it was reported that some United States Embassy staff were killed and burnt in Anambra State. That’s barbaric and shouldn’t have happened because there is no justification for that.
“Why this resurgence? Definitely, these resurgences are not religious. Since a new government is coming in, we’re sure we can engage the government to hit the ground running in bringing solutions to these problems.
“But we cannot continue that way because when bandits just go into people’s communities, kill them and burn their houses and nothing is done, then when the deed is done, the security agencies will go there to do what? To look at the ashes that are being burnt?”
