Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has accused President Bola Tinubu’s administration of abandoning the North-Central region to a wave of killings.
In a statement posted on his official X account, Atiku claimed insecurity has worsened across North-Central states as evidence that the federal government fails to protect citizens.
He said, “The resurgence of killings in the North-Central shows clearly that the Tinubu administration has abandoned the region to bloodshed.
“Kwara, once safe, is now a hotspot of bandit and kidnap attacks. Niger State has seen militants attack military bases, murder soldiers, and even massacre worshippers in a mosque. Plateau and Benue continue to bury their dead while the Federal Government looks away.”
Atiku said that by May of this year “over 10,000 lives had been lost in Northern states,” with Benue allegedly accounting for more than half of those deaths, and warned that mass killings have continued on a weekly basis since then.
He described the situation as “a monumental failure in the basic duty of securing lives and property.”
Atiku, who was Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, went on to accuse the ruling All Progressives Congress of focusing on fighting the opposition instead of insecurity.
He alleged that the party has used “thugs, infiltrators and hired hooligans” to disrupt political meetings in Kaduna, Kebbi and Ogun and that security forces have, in some cases, failed to act or blamed victims.
He also urged the Nigeria Police to remember that they are “funded by taxpayers, not by the APC,” calling on officers to remain “neutral, fair and constitutional.”
Atiku’s comments come amid mounting national criticism of the government’s handling of rural and communal violence in parts of the North and Middle Belt.
Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, while during an interview on Channels Television on Sunday, alleged that the Federal Government under President Bola Tinubu has been paying incentives to bandits through the ONSA.
He alleged that the ONSA coordinates payments to criminal groups in the name of amnesty and incentives, warning that such a policy would worsen insecurity.
But the ONSA dismissed the allegations as “false, baseless and insulting” to security operatives who have lost their lives in the fight against terrorism.
