People’s Democratic Party Presidential Candidate and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has condemned the attack on on a train station in Igueben LGA of Edo State, during which armed men kidnapped an undetermined number of people on Saturday.
The former Vice President took to his social media platform on Sunday to react to the attack, while called for urgent need to reform the security architecture to better safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerian citizens.
According to him, “The attack on a train station in Igueben LGA of Edo State, during which armed men kidnapped an undetermined number of people, is the latest in a long condemnable line of security breaches previously unseen in our national history.
“The thoughts of my family, and I are with the abducted and their families as we pray for their safe return. While we pray, it is important also to point out that this serves as the latest reminder of the urgent need to reform our security architecture to better safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerian citizens.
Atiku who pointed out some initiatives to what can be done to curb the insecurity in the country, committed to implementing these initiatives if Nigerians trust him with their mandate and elect him as the President next month.
He mentioned the amending Nigeria’s constitution to allow for state and community policing as a first line of security. “Modify the security apparatus to pay a greater premium to intelligence gathering and crime prevention than our current reactive approach.
“It is unacceptable for terrorists to plan attacks of this nature, mobilise arms and ammunition, secure funding and move large numbers of people across large spaces without detection by security agencies.
“Deploy technology toward tracking these terrorists and degrading their existing capacity to attack our people across the country.
“Apply the diplomatic pressures needed to stem the free flow of light arms and assault weapons across the West African sub-region and our borders. By doing this, we will severely restrict the capacity for terrorists to re-arm themselves to execute attacks.
“Greatly reducing the numbers of out-of-school children on our streets and improving the economy to create jobs for vast numbers of unemployed Nigerians, thereby reducing the pool from which these terrorists recruit people for their nefarious activities”.
The PDP Presidential Candidate, Atiku said he firmly believe that these actions will go a long way towards reducing incidents of insecurity and providing the secure environment needed for economic growth.
Meanwhile, Edo State Police Command on Saturday announced that scores of travellers waiting to board a train from Igueben Local Government Area of the state to Warri in Delta State, were kidnapped by suspected herdsmen.
The Command, in a press statement endorsed by its spokesman, Chidi Nwabuzor, at about 9.55pm, stated that the incident happened at about 4.00pm on Saturday.
According to the statement, the suspected herdsmen, who were armed with AK 47 rifles, invaded the train station and shot sporadically into the air before herding unspecified number of intending travellers into the bush.
In the process, some of the passengers, the Command added, sustained bullet wounds, just as it assured that bush combing and rescue operations had begun to rescue those that were kidnapped.