The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has lamented the killings in several states across the country, including Katsina, Adamawa, Kaduna, and Benue, describing the incidents as a collective failure of leadership.
Obi also described the killings, which occurred in the last 48 hours, as not only tragic but utterly unacceptable.
“A damning indictment of our collective failure of leadership,” he said. “From the reported killings in Katsina, Adamawa, Kaduna and Benue States, to the gruesome murder of an entire family in Plateau State, and the heartbreaking abduction of innocent children in Kogi State, one of the incidents involves children conveying their mother’s dead body for burial.”
Obi decried that Nigeria is bleeding and fast becoming a nation where human life is treated as expendable, citizens live in fear, and the basic duty of government — to protect lives and property is repeatedly neglected.
“11 innocent Nigerians were killed in Katsina State. 7 more in Benue State. 23 in Adamawa State in just one day. An entire family was brutally murdered in Plateau State. 24 children were abducted from an orphanage in Kogi State, and 10 more children were taken in Kaduna State, all within 48 hours.
“These are not mere statistics; they are our fellow Nigerians, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, whose lives have been brutally cut short or violently disrupted,” he said.
He emphasised that the insecurity cannot continue, noting that no nation can develop under the weight of such persistent violence and human tragedy.
Obi further expressed concern that the normalisation of these horrors is itself a crisis. “We must ask, with all sense of urgency and responsibility: where is the leadership? Where is the coordination, the competence, and the compassion required to confront this menace decisively?” he asked.
He condoled with the families of the victims, saying: “My heart goes out to all the grieving families across these states. I pray for divine comfort for those who have lost loved ones and for the safe and immediate return of all abducted children.”
He stressed the need for a secure Nigeria, describing it as an urgent necessity.
