Sultan says North worst place to live, as Ayokunle rebukes leaders

 

BY NICHOLAS ABE

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The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has declared northern Nigeria as the worst region to live in the country today, due to high level of insecurity plaguing the area.

He lamented the persistent brazen attacks by bandits in the North, claiming they have overrun the region in their activities.

According to the Sultan, the North is the worst place to be in Nigeria, because bandits go around in the villages, households and markets with their AK-47 guns openly and unchecked.

He said: “People think north is safe, but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country. Because bandits go around in the villages, households, and markets with their AK-47. They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts I know because I am at the centre of it.

“I am not only a traditional ruler, but I am also a religious leader. So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can speak for the north in this regard because I am fully aware of the security challenges there. We have to sincerely and seriously find solutions to the problem, otherwise, we will find ourselves soon, in a situation where we would lose sleep because of insecurity.

“As religious leaders, we must promote peace, love, unity, and tolerance among our followers. We will discuss all these issues at the close door session of the meeting and possibly come out with strong suggestions for government.”

Sultan Abubakar, according to Vanguard, raised the alarm in Abuja on Thursday at the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC), expressing regrets that the security situation in the North was not given enough media coverage.

READ: Sultan insincere, living in denial – CAN

“Security situation in northern Nigeria has assumed a worrisome situation. It is regrettable that no strong media platform could report this story to the world.

“A few weeks ago, over 76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day. I was there alongside the governor to commiserate with the affected community.

“Unfortunately, you didn’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the north. We have accepted the fact that the North doesn’t have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits,” he complained.

The Sultan’s indictment of the media for underreporting the deadly activities of bandits in the north is ironic, considering the fact that he was part of the group of northern leaders who gathered in Kaduna about three weeks ago and gave their support to the Federal Government’s proposed muzzling of the social media.

The northern leaders in a communique after their meeting decried “the devastating effect of the social media in spreading fake news,” while calling for “control mechanism and censorship of the social media practice in Nigeria.”

Also, speaking at the meeting, the President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Dr. Samson Ayokunle Olasupo, faulted government’s defence of the recent hike in the price of electricity and fuel, saying the increase “has added to our pains and they should reverse it as quickly as possible.”

On the recent #EndSARS protest, Ayokunle cautioned Nigerians against interpreting the demonstration along ethnic or religious bias.

“As a man of God, I never see the EndSARS protest coming. Maybe I am far from God. It came to us all unaware. Initially, I thought that the protest was organised by bad boys in society, but when I began to see and read stories of Police brutality, I was surprised and supported their actions.

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“But attributing the actions of the angry youths to a particular religion or ethnic group is insincere and unsafe. No religious group was exempted from the effect of the protest. The action was a spontaneous action that cannot be attributed to any religion or ethnic group.”

Ayokunle’s observation was a direct rebuke of the Sultan and other leaders of the North, including the governors of the 19 states that make up the region, whose Kaduna meeting “rejects and condemns the subversive actions of the #EndSARS protest” while commending “the roles of his eminence, royal highnesses and other royal fathers in ensuring the #EndSARS protests did not escalate significantly in the North by adopting sentimental issues such as ethnicity and religion.”

In his remark, the Secretary to Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, cited insecurity as the major factor militating against progress and prosperity of the nation.

“Today, despite all efforts, including the deployment of enormous resources, our country still faces a measure of insecurity which is impacting negatively on our economy, social life, education of children and young persons, investment, and remains a threat to lives and livelihood,” he said.

Mustapha maintained that, though the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria places the responsibility for security and safety on the government, all citizens must be actively involved in security-related matters particularly in their local areas.

Against that backdrop, he urged NIREC to use its traditional and religious capacities to further escalate it to all Nigerians, especially the youths at the grassroots.