The Presidency on Sunday tackled former Vice President Atiku Abubakar’s claim that the reported 5,091 Nigerians killed in violent incidents over a three-month period was an indictment on President Bola Tinubu’s government, insisting that security agencies had in the same window killed more than 13,000 terrorists and rescued thousands more Nigerians from captivity.
It argued that Atiku deliberately ignored the successes of the Armed Forces in the war against terror in pursuit of what it described as “a politics of despair.”
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Temitope Ajayi, made the rebuttal in an interview with one of our correspondents, responding to a statement issued earlier on Sunday by Atiku’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu.
Atiku described President Bola Tinubu’s security record as “soaked in blood” and cited the 5,091 death toll as grounds for the government’s removal.
Reacting, Ajayi said, “In the last three months, the security agencies have, according to official figures, killed between 13,000 to 20,000 terrorists. They have rescued at least 10,000 of Nigerians across the DSS, the police, the military. And this is according to official reports.
“So, every day the military, the police, the DSS are rescuing people. So, why is Atiku not commending them for that? Are those people who were rescued not important?”
He argued that Atiku’s silence on those figures was deliberate, saying, “He cannot focus on that because it doesn’t serve his politics of despair. All he wants to focus on is despondency to sell fear to Nigerians. What it serves is warped politics. It is politics without conscience.”
