Stop These Killings, Dogara, Bode George Tell Tinubu

Segun James

A former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, and a former Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), South, Chief Bode George, have urged President Bola Tinubu to stop the perpetrators of violence in parts of the country.

Dogara spoke in Jos, Plateau State when he led some serving and former members of the House of Representatives on a condolence visit to the Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, following the recent massacre of about 200 people in Bokkos, Mangu and Barkin Ladi local government areas (LGAs) of the state by terrorists.

He urged Tinubu not to toe the path of his predecessors who only mourned victims of killings in press statements, thereby reducing themselves to mourners-in-chief instead of taking responsibility as commanders-in-chief.
He urged the President to rise to the occasion and use every available means to locate the perpetrators and sponsors of violence across the country and bring them to justice.

Dogara maintained that those responsible for the genocide and orgy of violence are all out to end the ways of life of Nigerians and must be stopped.
He said, “The perpetrators of this violence are not just crazy but are very dangerous, and the truth is that they won’t just stop until we stop them. We must stop them. Who has the responsibility to stop them? It is the Commander-in-Chief, but previously, they reduced themselves to mourners-in-chief instead.
“It means using whatever coercive security apparatus we have as a nation to locate where these perpetrators and their sponsors wherever they are littered in the ungoverned spaces that we have in Nigeria, whether in Plateau, Nasarawa, Benue, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto or in southern Kaduna or the South, we must locate them and after locating them, the Commander-in-Chief must take justice to them or bring them to justice.”

The former Speaker added that the “failure to either take justice to them or bring them to justice has always been the bane of the fight against terrorism and violence in Nigeria because it emboldens them. If they will kill on the Plateau and go scot-free, why won’t they kill in any other state in the North and the South?
“Failure to act at that level is more or less an incentive for them to continue to deploy this unbridled violence on the people. So, my call, therefore, is to the President to rise up and for him to know that condolences at this moment, whether on the Plateau or elsewhere in the country, are better given in the form of decisive action against the perpetrators of this violence and not by mere words.”

He, however, exonerated the state governor of blame, saying he does not control any troops.
Responding, Mutfwang expressed gratitude to the former Speaker for always identifying with the state and urged him not to be silent but to keep pushing for the interest of the people.
On his part, George has stated that President Tinubu has a lot of work to do, saying the insecurity in the country has gone beyond control.

George who spoke on national TV last night, said Nigerians are ready to give President Tinubu enough time.

“The state of our nation has been completely in a shambolic situation; it is in perpetual despair and despondency. There is hunger in the land and there is anger in the land; the insecurity has gone beyond control,” Chief George said during an interview on television at the weekend.

“So, when you look at all those things; we are all Nigerians and I listened to his (Tinubu) New Year speech and I also listened to what Chief Osoba said, this is not the time to play politics, it is our nation. He (Tinubu) has a hell of a job to do and I have listened to him. He has these eight objectives for the year, national defence; internal security, and job creation; the man who left, who was my ‘oga’ did a woeful job, he did not do well at all; they belong to the same party.

“So, we all Nigerians will give him a chance, let us see how he is going to handle it. Bola Tinubu, God will guide him – he is in the hottest seat in the whole of Africa today because for every 10 Africans six are Nigerians, brilliant people. So, nobody can pull any wool over our ey es, I pray for him, I pray for our country,” George added.