Group Bemoans Incessant Killings in Nigeria
Loading ...By Yakubu Salisu A, Kano
A group, Centre for Information Technology and Development (CITAD) in collaboration with Joint Nigeria Crisis Action Committee (JN-CAC) yesterday in Kano raised the alarm over the incessant killings in the country.
CITAD, quoting The African Center for Strategic Studies estimated that over 60,000 persons were killed in the middle belt of the country between 2001 and 2016, adding that in the first 70 days of 2018 over 1,400 persons were killed violently across the country, representing an average of almost 40 per state including the Federally Capital Territory.
“ even with the suppression of information on these killings, it is quite clear that the toll of killings has risen dramatically in recent times. From Abia-Zamfara, Nigerians wake up daily to fresh news of mass atrocities, which are barely acknowledged by government and a vast majority of citizens. This is an anomaly that most end”
Also, it noted that the southern state of the country have not been spared in the on-going bloodletting, as at least 34 out of the 36 states have experienced one episode of violent killings within the first quarter of 2018.
As a result of these anomalies, the group lamented that the number of out of school children in the country has continued to grow in a geometric ratio from almost one-third from about ten million to over 13 million current countly.
“ as a result, we seem to have normalize the violent killings of our own citizens as well as the pillage of our communities. Reports have reduced human lives to mare numbers that are bandied and argued about without thought of properly accounting for them or according them dignity by naming them”
In a press statement, issued by the program assistant Harira Abdulrahaman Wakili notes that politicians who should be interested in currying our ballots are manifestly unconcerned, while the citizens the claimed to want to serve are killed with Machetes, bullets and bayonets.
Also She regrets that elected leaders have gone on record to justify these killings, absolve themselves of responsibility and play down their gravity in one location by claiming that more people have been killed else where, as though, each crisis location was competing with the other for casualties.
Following the nation’s woes CITAD, and JN-CAC set aside 28th May of every year as National Mourning Day and Remembrance and also urge Nigerians to observe one minute of silence for the dead where they can not be part of the ceremony to stand in front of their homes and businesses and cars and be silent for a minute. For markets to stop all trading activities for five minutes and ring a bell for five minutes for the departed souls.
Similarly, CITAD urged Nigerians to dress or sleeve a black arm band on May 28th of every year as a symbol of solidarity. And flags should flown at half mast.
