*Hails freedom of Bethel Baptist School’s abducted students
By KEMI KASUMU
The Muslim Media Watch Group of Nigeria has hailed the freedom of 28 Bethel Baptist High School students in Chikum Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
In a statement released Monday by its National Coordinator, Malam Abdullahi Ibrahim, and copy of which was sent to The DEFENDER, the Group condemned the ‘siege’ of criminals on Nigerians especially in the Northern states of Nigeria.
He then called on the security agencies, especially the military, the police and Department of State Services (DSS) to upscale their efforts in curbing the violent crimes of kidnapping and banditry in the country.
“The nation’s intelligence and security mechanism ought to have located the dens of these criminals and be able to track them down since they started their nefarious activities several years back,” it said.
The MMWG, while commending the Federal Government’s efforts in arresting the wave of crimes across the country, said the failure of terrorists to release the kidnapped 137 children of an Islamiyyah School in Tegina, Niger State is a serious challenge to the Federal and Niger State Government.
It added that equally a challenge is the recurring kidnapping cases in Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara, Kebbi and Katsina states.
“The information that some of the children kidnapped from Islamiyyah School in Tegina are kept somewhere near Shiroro, also in Niger State, is disturbing as security and state government officials keeping mum over this issue in spite of the hardship on these children leading to the death of three of them already.
“MMWG called on the all concerned in Governments to urgently relieve agonising Parents & Guardians of grieve by doing the needful to set the innocent children free while efforts should be made to capture alive those tormenting Nigeria with these crimes so that they could be made to face the law,” it said.
Although the process for the release of the school children took a little longer, Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, had insisted that his administration would neither negotiate nor give ransom to bandits, adding that so long they have chosen to kidnap and kill, they must die unless they change.
El-Rufai, according a Christian leader in the state, had said he was working with security forces on the abducted children but insisted he would not divulge security plans to anybody.
Lagos, Ogun LG elections
On last Saturday’s Local Governments’ elections in Lagos State, the Group stated that the low turnout of voters in Lagos and Ogun states for the process confirmed that the electorates are tired of deceitful polls.
It recalled that several demands for justice, transparency and accountability in LG elections, which made citizens to demand for scrapping of States’ Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC), continued with undemocratic process “where state governments choose whoever will contest, organise and supervise same elections and award all results in their own favour”. This the Group said is fraudulent, unjust, unacceptable and unsustainable.
The Muslim Media Watch Group, therefore, called on the National Assembly to amend the relevant portion of the 1999 Constitution to give the National Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) the power to organise LG elections and scrap States Independent Electoral Commissions (SIEC) without further delay.
