President Bola Tinubu has been admonished to do everything within his powers to stamp out all criminal activities across the country that have brought pains, trauma and avoidable loss to innocent families.
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Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos (Anglican Communion), Rt. Rev. Ifedola Gabriel Okupevi, who gave the advice in his New Year message, lamented the rising cases of kidnap for ransom and ritual purposes, particularly by young people.

“It is barbaric for any young man to think the only way to get rich and attain affluence is to kidnap a fellow human being and make the family pay ransom and where money could not be raised, they kill the victim. This is sickening. Another category is kidnap for ritual purposes. They go on to dismember and harvest the body parts of another person. This must stop,” he said.

Okupevi called for a national rebirth that will involve the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to promote dignity of labour and honest living among young Nigerians to dissuade them from indulging in criminal activities.

“Many of our youth have been deceived and more of them are getting it wrong. Nigerians and her leaders must rise now.”

The Bishop also advised political office holders, public-spirited and wealthy individuals, including private sector operators to come to the aid of poor Nigerians who are finding it difficult to live at this time because of the country’s economic downturn.
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“Poverty is real. People are doing unimaginable things just to survive. The Church is trying, but must also do more. The political leaders and office holders must remember the poor and the masses. We say poverty is ungodly. We must be kind to the poor and the less privileged. There is a high rate of unreported suicide and attempted suicide in the country. We must all rise to stop the trend,” he said.

Okupevi appealed to President Tinubu to urgently tackle the hardship in the land, give special attention to revamping the economy, stop brain drain and unite the country.

“It is no longer news that more Nigerians are living below the poverty level. The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed that about 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor. The NBS further said that 63 per cent of Nigerians are poor due to lack of access to health, education, economic infrastructures and other factors. The government needs to do something urgently about the situation in 2024.
“We cannot hide the fact that 2023 was very challenging economically for the citizens of this nation, irrespective of class, gender and status. This was further aggravated by the fuel subsidy removal with its attendant effect of an unprecedented general increase in the price of goods and services across the nation. The inflationary trend and its damaging effects on human purchasing power were equally unprecedented in 2023.”

The cleric, who noted that Nigerians are people with understanding, tolerance and forbearance, encouraged the government at all levels to effectively communicate their policies to the citizens, just as he urged the people to rally round the government to tackle the challenges facing the country.

He prayed for peace in Ukraine, Russia, Israel and Palestine as well as African countries and other parts of the world that are being ravaged by war, flood crisis and
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