By Udora Orizu
The Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, has condemned the killing of citizens in Egedegede community of Ebonyi State by suspected herdsmen, and the attack on former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Chukwuma Soludo, by gunmen in Isuofia, Anambra State, in which three policemen were killed.
The lawmaker in a statement issued yesterday said that the prevailing killings across the country were ominous indications that things were falling apart, which if not immediately arrested, would spell doom for the country.
Okechukwu suggested that time was overdue to breathe life into the reports of the 2014 National Conference and the Governor Nasir El-Rufai-led All Progressives Congress (APC) Committee on True Federalism, both of which he said favoured state police as the answer to the rising insecurity in the country.
He said with the country’s present security architecture, it was apparent that citizens could not be protected, stressing that the APC government had lost its mandate for which it was hired in 2019.
According to him, ‘’this continuous carnage as evident from the attack in Ebonyi is a clear indication that things are really falling apart. This massacre of hapless citizens is another sad reminder that we are in a season of anomie where innocent people are unexpectedly mowed down in cold blood without consequences.
‘‘It is unbelievable that non-state actors brandishing AK-47 and other lethal weapons can hold a nation-state of over 200 million people to ransom, undetected, unchallenged and without any consequences. It is very apparent from all indications that the federal government has lost the initiative to preempt, curtail, mitigate or solve these devilish attacks and bloodletting.’’
While commiserating with the people of Ebonyi State, he called on the security agencies to ensure the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators.
