Nigerian Security Agencies Not Serious About Engaging Bandits; Only Appear After Attacks, Maybe To Mock Victims, See Ashes –Sultan Of Sokoto 

THE Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, has accused security operatives in the country of failing to confront terrorists and bandits only to appear at scenes of attacks after the perpetrators must have struck to mock the victims.

The Sultan, who is also the President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), made the allegations during the second quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), with the theme ‘Media and Effective Nation Building’ held in Abuja on Thursday.

The revered traditional and religious leader lamented the resurging cases of attacks in different states in the country after the general elections which he described as very alarming.

“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,” the Sultan said. “These killings are definitely not related to religion, but the activities of some set of uninformed people.

“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. 

“A few days ago, it was reported that some United States Embassy staffers 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?” the Sultan who is also a retired Army officer, noted.

Eighteen-Eleven Media