By Babalola Seyi
The recent raid on a railway station in the Igueben LGA of Edo State, during which several individuals were kidnapped by armed men, has alarmed PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
He then demanded that the federal government support local and state enforcement as the first line of defence.
In a statement released on Sunday from his media office, Atiku referred to the incident as the most recent in a long list of egregious security lapses that had gone unheard of in our country’s history.
The statement reads: “While we pray, it is important to also point out that this serves as the latest reminder on the urgent need to reform our security architecture to better safeguard the lives and properties of the Nigerian citizens.”
Atiku noted that the Constitution may have to be amended to allow for state and community policing as a first line of security.
He also noted that the country’s security apparatus “must pay a greater premium to intelligence gathering and crime prevention than our current reactive approach.”
Atiku avowed: “It is unacceptable for terrorists to plan attacks of this nature, mobilize arms and ammunition, secure funding and move large numbers of people across large spaces without detection by the security agencies.”
He advocated the use of tracking technology to degrade terrorists’ capacity to attack across the country and curbing the free flow of light arms and assault weapons across the West African sub-region and through our borders as well as reducing the numbers of out-of-school children on our streets as remedial measures.
He also noted that “improving the economy to create jobs for vast numbers of unemployed Nigerians,” will reduce “the pool from which these terrorists recruit people for their nefarious activities.”