*Seeks immediate rescue of 163 kidnapped Kajuru worshippers
By Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called on the All Progressives Congress-led Federal Government to immediately commence comprehensive rescue operations of the 163 worshippers kidnapped during the Sunday service in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State, with a view to bringing them home safely.
The party made the call on Monday in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Ini Ememobong in Abuja.
The party specifically advised President Bola Tinubu to concentrate on fixing Nigeria’s worsening insecurity instead of spending millions of taxpayers’ money on international image laundering campaigns to change narratives abroad.
It declared, emphatically that insecurity cannot be solved by propaganda.
The PDP cautioned the APC-led administration not to dramatize the present sad situation in Kajuru the way they did with the Niger school kidnapping, “where media optics prevailed over identity protection and safeguarding during the ‘rescue and return’ processes of the victims”.
The PDP expressed the firm convinction that if state policing had been operational, these criminals may not have successfully operated with such impunity and taken this large number of people captive.
The Federal Government, it stressed, must urgently double its efforts at combating banditry, kidnapping and other violent crimes.
The statement by Ememobong reads, “The Peoples Democratic Party extends heartfelt sympathy to the families of the 163 worshippers kidnapped during Sunday service in Kajuru Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
Our thoughts and prayers are with them during this agonizing period of uncertainty.
“The abduction of 163 Nigerians from their places of worship is a sad reminder of the normalisation of insecurity which has become the new reality of Nigerians due to the horrifying security failure under the Bola Tinubu APC-led administration.
“According to the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kajuru Local Government Area, as quoted in several credible media sources, the attack “was carried out by bandits who arrived in large numbers, while the worshippers were in the middle of the service.
“172 people were initially abducted, but nine of them escaped immediately after the attack.”
“These frequent attacks on worshippers in their places of worship, irrespective of religion, represent the inability of this government to protect the constitutionally enshrined right to freedom of worship.
“Nigerians must not live in fear when going to churches or mosques to worship. The entrenchment of such brazen criminality under this administration is totally unacceptable.
“We hereby call on the APC-led Federal Government to immediately commence comprehensive rescue operations to bring these kidnapped citizens home safely.
“We urge them not to dramatize this sad situation the way they did with the Niger school kidnapping, where media optics prevailed over identity protection and safeguarding during the ‘rescue and return’ processes of the victims.
