Terrorism: PDP laments, says 18,000 Nigerians killed in 2 years

• Berates APC over handling of Kaduna/Abuja train terrorism 

By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP,  on Monday, bemoaned the level of insecurity in the country, lamenting that between the years 2020 and 2022 about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists emboldened by the failures of the present administration.

The PDP said this at a press conference addressed by its National Publicity Secretary, Hon Debo Ologunagba following the traumatizing Video on the dehumanizing treatment inflicted on victims of Kaduna/Abuja Train Terrorism Attack. 

According to the PDP, “between 2020 and 2022 about 18,000 Nigerians have been killed by terrorists who continue to be emboldened by the failures and obvious complicity of the APC and to which the PDP had always drawn attention”.

The disquieting video, the PDP said, 

is a heartrending testament of the reported complicity and failure of the APC government to take decisive actions to rescue the victims since the gruesome train attack in which very promising Nigerians including a 29 years old female medical doctor was brutally killed and others taken captive by terrorists since then.  

The party described the traumatizing Video and the dehumanizing treatment inflicted on passengers as a painful commentary on the continuing mass killing by terrorists in various parts of our country.

The PDP similarly called it a confirmation of the agony of hundreds of Nigerians, including students, who are being tortured and executed in countless terrorists’ dens enabled by the APC government.

According to Ologunagba, “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is deeply saddened, alarmed and distressed by the video of terrorists mercilessly flogging, inflicting grievous bodily harm and threatening to sell into slavery and kill traumatized victims of the bloody Abuja/Kaduna train attack who have been held in captivity since March 28, 2022 exactly 120 days today (yesterday).

“It is indeed heartbreaking to watch fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, helpless children; compatriots and citizens of Nigeria in captivity and being tortured, brutalized, humiliated and crying in pain, agony and anguish just because we have the misfortune of being under the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The emotional toll of this sad incident on the victims, their families and the entire nation cannot be quantified, particularly on the younger generation who witnessed the humiliation of their parents and breadwinners in such gruesome circumstance.

“This will certainly have a generational consequence on the emotional and psychological makeup of our young persons with the possibility of losing faith in our nation and the capacity for empathy.

“Indeed, as a Party, our hearts bleed! The APC government has irretrievably failed our nation. 

“Under the APC, Nigeria is fast sliding into a Hobbesian State where Rule of Law, Order and leadership are absent and where cruel, inhumane and insensitive bunch of human beings in government have abandoned our citizens to killers, terrorists and bandits. 

 “This disquieting video is a heartrending testament of the reported complicity and failure of the APC government to take decisive actions to rescue the victims since the gruesome train attack in which very promising Nigerians including a 29 years old female medical doctor was brutally killed and others taken captive by terrorists since then.  

 “It is a painful commentary on the continuing mass killing by terrorists in various parts of our country as well as a confirmation of the agony of hundreds of our citizens including students, who are being tortured and executed in countless terrorists’ dens enabled by the APC government.

“Nigerians can recall how the PDP on various occasions alerted that the APC government has ceded sovereignty over a large portion of our country to terrorists, many of whom were imported into our country by the APC.

“From the video, in a brazen manner, terrorists as non-state actors boldly showed their faces, boasting, admitting and confirming their participation in the Kuje Prison break, some of whom were former prison inmates who were either jailed or awaiting trial for their previous terrorism act against our country.

“Nigerians can equally recall the confession by the Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai that the APC government knows the plans and whereabouts of the terrorists but failed to act.