‘Declare October 1 day of mourning’

Miffed by unrelenting violence and killings across Nigeria, particularly in the Middle Belt, a pressure group, Builders of New Nigeria, has appealed to government to use this year’s Independence Day anniversary to mourn thousands of citizens being killed by suspected herdsmen and Boko Haram.

The group’s Convener and National Chairman, Mr. Yinka Quadiri, who made the appeal, while addressing newsmen at the Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDP) Camp at Geo-science Institute in Jos, appealed to government to do everything in its powers to stop the killings.

He said: “The sad situation, where government is suspected and accused of complicity, is undesirable and dangerous. The government must do everything needful to set the right impression.

“Any government or leadership that routinely arouses suspicion of its own people would soon lose its legitimacy.”

Quadiri enjoined every patriotic Nigerian, home and abroad, to urgently rise up to do whatever is peaceful, legal and amicable to resolve the present crisis and prevent the country from degenerating into a failed state.

He said: “This chaos in the Middle Belt and in other minority ethnic groups in Nigeria must be brought to an end and this destructive trajectory reversed. The failure to intervene, stop and reverse this scary trend may result in individual, communal, national, continental and global consequences of dire dimensions.

“Our appeal goes to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the father of the nation, to do everything within his powers to stop the killings. So far, he has fallen short of as the country’s Chief Security Officer. We are convinced he could do much more than he is currently doing. Nigeria is burning and it is consuming its own people. This has to stop.”

The group enjoined the President to listen to the people’s cry demanding withdrawal of the military from crisis areas, as a result of perceived lack of bureaucratic neutrality.

It implored government to allow creation of vigilance groups in states to check the menace.