AGAINST the backdrop of growing insecurity plaguing the nation, a former governor of Oyo State, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, on Saturday, in Ibadan, said it is shameful that terrorists are now oppressing the government of President Muhammadu Buhari after a ceaseless reign of terror on the citizenry.
He contended that with the recent terrorists attacks on the advance convoy of Mr President in Katsina State and the latest jailbreak perpetrated by terrorists in Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, criminality had assumed a frightening level in Nigeria.
Speaking to journalists at his Bodija residence, after observing Eid-el-Kabir prayers Ladoja stated that “with the recent terrorist attack on the advance team of the convoy of President Buhari in Katsina, they will now understand the reality of the growing insecurity facing the country.”
According to him, “now that insecurity is knocking at their door, maybe they will now understand the critical situation we now find ourselves and what the masses are going through.
“We are very lucky that the president was not there. We were told it was an attack on his advance team. It is not easy to attack a president like that. There will be soldiers, police, NSCDC operatives in the convoy of the president, who are well-armed.
“But, for the terrorists to dare carry out an attack on Mr President’s convoy, it is time for the government to sit up and do more to tackle insecurity and criminal activities of terrorists. God will not support oppression because they (terrorists) are now oppressing everybody.
“They are not only oppressing everybody, but they are now even oppressing a sitting government. How many people can live in their towns in the North? They either stay put in Abuja because of insecurity, or other safer towns,“ Ladoja posited.
He continued: “We have to pray that what is happening to them in the North in terms of insecurity does not happen to us here. We are saying that food is expensive and how would food items not be expensive. We have to ask ourselves: how many farmers are going to farms now? They have been chased away from their farmlands by gunmen.
“If you don’t plant, you cannot reap anything. It is just the basic truth. So, whatever you don’t plant, you cannot harvest. Sometimes ago, it was reported that some rice farmers, numbering above 100 were slaughtered on their farms in the North. Now, how many rice farmers are going back to farms now or how many other farmers are returning to farms after several attacks by gunmen and terrorists.
“Maybe now that insecurity is getting closer to the president, he would understand the grave implication better. The terrorists that attacked Kuje Prisons knew what they went there to do. Some people have been negotiating with them.
“The terrorists said the reason they are holding the Abuja-Kano train passengers hostage is to swap or exchange them (victims) with their commanders arrested by security agencies and detained in prisons. Now that they (terrorists) have freed their commanders, I wonder what the government is waiting for again but to go and free the train victims, who are being held hostage by these terrorists.
“If they are bold enough to come and free their commanders at Kuje Prisons and we are not told that anyone of them (terrorists) was arrested or gunned down, then something was amiss. They operated for more than three hours without any resistance.”