Worried by the rising insecurity in the country, Bamidele Salam, a member of the House of Representatives from Osun State on Wednesday staged a one-man protest barefooted.
Salam who walked from Unity Fountain to the National Assembly complex, Abuja lamented the plight of the victims of the Kaduna train attack who are still held hostage by the terrorists.
Speaking with journalists after the protest, urged President Muhammadu Buhari to do all that is within his power as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to free these victims and many others languishing in captivity.
He said: “As a lawmaker and Nigerian elected to solve problems, I believe very strongly that it has not come to the stage of considering impeachment of the president. Personally, that’s my opinion.
“I have been in this country for the past 53 years of my life and I have a fair understanding of the political dynamics of the country and I don’t think we should create new problems to attempt to solve other problems. That’s my personal opinion. Like I said I don’t speak for the House and I don’t know if anybody is bringing any motion to that effect but that’s my own personal opinion.”
Salam also lamented that Nigeria is becoming a jungle of sorts where criminals carve out turfs and operate freely without let or hindrance.
According to him, “One of the key dimensions of this criminality is the unholy practice of kidnapping for ransom, which according to reports has spawned a billion naira industry in the last seven years or so.
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“It is to our embarrassment as a nation that our wives, mothers, fathers, and husbands get routinely kidnapped at will by bandits with many of them losing their lives even after the payment of ransom by their families or communities.
“Statistics of kidnapping in the country chill the bones. A report by the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) shows that from 2018 there has been a steady increase in the number of kidnap victims. The figure rose from 987 victims in 2018 to 1,395 in 2019. In 2021 the figure rose to 2,865 in 2020 and 5,287 in 2021. Of the 2021 figure, more than 2,000 were children and young people according to a UN study.
“This year alone, several hundred Nigerians have been kidnapped the most harrowing being the attack on a train along the Abuja-Kaduna rail line in Kaduna State on March 28, this year where 168 people were reported kidnapped and eight persons killed including a young doctor due to travel out of the country the very week of the incident. The kidnapped victims of that attack remain in captivity to this moment.
“It is not clear how long they will be in captivity. Whether they will remain there like the remnant of the Chibok girls kidnapped in 2014, Leah Sharibu who has been in captivity since February 19, 2018, the Bethel Baptist High School Students held for 10 months and 23 days, the pupils of the Islamiyya School in Katsina in captivity for nine months and 28 days, and the of the FGC Birni Yauri in Kebbi State who spent 11 months and nine days with terrorists, remains to be seen.
He said the country is at that point today where President Buhari must rise to its full height and exercise leadership, adding that, the unfettered activities of bandits, terrorists and other criminals have created the impression in the minds of many Nigerians and even foreigners that the Nigerian state is tottering on the brink of collapse.
Salam said: “This impression is reinforced by the ease with which these criminal elements even take on security operatives. We recall that in August 2021, bandits attacked Nigeria’s elite military institution, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) killing two officers and abducting another senior officer.
“That attack and many others elsewhere have belittled our security agencies and have caused Nigerians to lose faith in the ability of their government to protect their inalienable rights to life and property.
“President Buhari must rekindle that confidence and a good place to start would be to work assiduously to secure the release of the kidnapped Kaduna train victims. Reports and video footages emanating from their abductors are not encouraging. The lives of the hostages hang in the balance as the Federal Government seemingly at its wit’s end prevaricates on such sensitive matter of national importance.”
