…As 20 drown trying to escape bandits in Sokoto
The Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Alhaji (Dr.) Saad Abubakar, has warned that the rising insecurity in Nigeria may consume the nation if urgent steps are not taken by the Federal Government and other stakeholders involved in the management of the country, to rescue the situation.
The Sultan, who spoke at a valedictory dinner in honour of the immediate-past President of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Dr. Samson Ayokunle Olasupo, in Abuja, said that insecurity has touched everybody irrespective of location in the country.
He disclosed that on Wednesday, not less than twenty persons drowned in Sokoto community while trying to escape from an onslaught of bandits, an indication that enemies neither know religion nor tribe in their operations. He warned that no one is exempted from the negative impact of the unending insecurity situation.
According to him, The fact that we have been talking about this insecurity should be enough fact for all of us to wake up and take action either individually or collectively. We need to come together and face these enemies that have decided to unleash terror on our people. If not, this insecurity will consume all of us in no distant time, because we have chosen to sit and blame one another instead of taking steps and actions that would tame the menace. The blame game will never help anybody.
As religious leaders, we have a lot to do and we would do our best to help the Government tackle these issues. Campaign would soon start ahead of the 2023 general elections; we need to hold political office seekers to account. They should explain to us their plans and agenda for the masses. Nigeria is too much and too great to be held down by some set of people who are making unrealistic demands, he emphasised.
He charged the new CAN President, Most Rev. Daniel Okoh, to bring up his ideas and suggestions to the Nigeria Inter-religious Council, (NIREC), so that they can be deliberated upon for the good of the nation. The monarch expressed confidence in the ability and capacity of the new CAN President to continue to sail the ship of the association to the expected destination.
He appreciated the support and contributions of the immediate-past CAN President in the past six years that he had piloted the affairs of CAN, and appealed to him to always make himself available for service to the nation.
