Increasing kidnaping shows Tinubu’s security strategy is failing – Atiku

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar says the increasing spate of kidnapping in the country is an indication that President Bola Tinubu’s security strategy is failing.

Abubakar, who was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, said Tinubu and his team must rework their strategies to stop the escalating insecurity in Nigeria.

The former vice president stated this on his X handle while reviewing the most recent cases of kidnapping, including those of the two journalists abducted with some members of their families on Saturday night.

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The kidnappers also kidnapped 78-year-old Takai Shamang, president and founder of Gantys Aid for Widows, Orphans and Needy Foundation (GAWON) from his home in Kaduna

Shamang, a former president-general of the National Union of Electricity and Gas Workers (now known as the National Union of Electricity Employees) between 1982 and 1989, was moved most bizarrely from his home.

Atiku said: “In these perilous times, the courageous sentinels of truth, our journalists, stand as beacons of light, unwavering in their duty to hold power accountable.

“Yet, they find themselves besieged not only by the terror of abductors but also by a government that continues to assault their freedom through arrests and detention.

He recalled how, Janet Galadima-Gimba, a customary court judge in the same Kaduna, was abducted and released, while her sons were still in captivity, with the abductors reportedly making a demand of N150 million as ransom.

“Elsewhere in Katsina, 75-year-old Hauwa’u Adamu, mother of the popular Hausa singer, Dauda Kahutu Rarara, or Rarara, as he is fondly called, was kidnapped on Friday.

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He described the despicable act as underscoring “the dire state of our nation’s security and the gross failure of our leaders to protect its citizens.

“These abductions are a damning indictment of our leaders’ failure to secure the citizens and an intolerable breach of press freedom (as it relates to the journalists).

“My thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the abducted. I call upon the security agencies to act decisively and without delay to secure their release but to prioritise intelligence gathering and sharing.”

BusinessDay gathered on Sunday that the wife of one of the journalists who was kidnapped alongside her husband was later released Saturday night by the kidnappers due to her health condition.