For the umpteenth time in a week, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been told to compel the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, to personally undertake the swift rescue of the eight corpers kidnapped by terrorists in Zamfara State on their way to the camp two weeks ago.

HURIWA in a statement on Friday once more reminded the federal overnment that “the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a symbol of the nation’s unity and any attack on members of the Corps posted to serve in any part of the country must be categorised as a crime that falls under the priority list.” HURIWA said the management of the NYSC has done all that it can to guarantee the security of the corpers but the rights group said the bulk of responsibility to protect the corpers lie squarely in the hands of the IGP.

It lamented that over several years, heads of security services have escaped the big hammer from the appointing authority even when evidence abound of a clear dereliction of duty by these officers. This failure of supervision on the part of the appointing authority has inflicted a regime of gross indiscipline and failure of professional ethics on the part of the heads of the security agencies in the country.

National Coordinator of HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, affirmed that the Nigeria Police has all the regulatory frameworks that oblige them to effectively rescue these youngsters taken away by terrorists for over two weeks. He said a perusal of all the statutory provisions that capture the duties of the NPF have strengthened the police to carry out her security duties.

Onwubiko said the IGP has failed to carry out his legal duties by failing to clinically rescue the eight corps members. “We expect that the IGP should lead from the front and rescue the eight corpers who are languishing amidst pain and pangs with hardened terrorists inside the forests of Zamfara State.”

HURIWA also criticised the Minister of Defence, Mr Mohammed Badaru, for saying that Nigeria needs prayers to be able to checkmate the heightened state of insecurity all around the country. The group said the statement was a manifestation of crass incompetence and a clear justification of widespread criticisms that trailed the selection of ministers recently by President Bola Tinubu for which many analysts say most of the cabinet level appointees were simply round pegs in square holes.

The Minister, last Thursday, had, while receiving a delegation from Jigawa State Government led by the Executive Governor, Mr Umar Namadi, urged Nigerians to continue praying for an end to the security challenges tearing the country apart.

Badaru said that with the complex nature of the security challenges and other aspects of national development, “one could only ask for prayers to succeed.”

HURIWA however carpeted the Defence minister for his pedestrian approach to the fight against terrorism and ways and means of defeating the agents of instability and insecurity in the country.

The association said It thought the minister could have asked the civilian population of Nigerians to be vigilant and become active citizens in such a way that if they see something, they should say something and then the Nigerian government would act swiftly to eradicate those who threaten the security of Nigeria.

The group argued that the duty of government officials was to appropriately enlighten the citizenry on their responsibility towards achieving a stable and secure nation.

“Much more than prayers, Nigeria needs strong soldiers and a hierarchy that operates on zero-tolerance to procurement corruption and insider sabotage, a civil society that partners constructively with the security community to volunteer information that constitutes hard core intelligence to be able to destroy terrorists,” the group maintained.

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