Peter Obi, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party in Nigeria, has condemned the insecurity in the country’s Southeast, saying the frequent sit-at-home order in the region is criminal.

“What is going on in the Southeast is essentially a criminal activity that must be nipped in the bud, with all hands being on deck, security agencies, and the people alike,” Obi tweeted on Thursday via his Twitter handle.

Obi, who was making a general comment on the rising insecurity in Nigeria said it was “disturbing” that gunmen enforcing the sit-at-home order in the Southeast have continued to disrupt businesses and social activities in the region.

“The Southeast Governors are to be commended for their renewed efforts at curbing this menace but there is a need to be more strategic and intelligence-driven in our approach to reducing the suffering of innocent people,” he said.

Obi is from Anambra, one of the five states in the region. He is a former governor of the state.

Obi also commented on the security challenges in the Northcentral region.

“The violent attacks in the Northcentral states of Benue and Plateau lately took a new twist with high records of kidnapping, arson, and loss of human lives. According to the 1st Quarter Mass Atrocities Casualty Tracking Report, over 1230 Nigerians were killed.

“79 of them security operatives, with over 600 abductions in the first quarter of this year alone. With what has been happening in the Northcentral and Zamfara state lately the figure as of today will be mind-boggling even far more than the deaths recorded in Russia/Ukraine ongoing carnage.

“It’s unacceptable that hundreds of innocent lives will continue to be wasted in Nigeria needlessly through communal clashes, bandits, and kidnapping activities.

“The situation in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau States has raised a lot of anxiety because of the number of lives and properties lost with very little resistance from security operatives,” Obi said.

Obi said the killings in the different parts of Nigeria must not be allowed to continue, and that Nigerians, through their various governments, “should up our value for human lives in the way and manner we respond to issues that touch lives”.

“I will like to urge critical stakeholders in these areas, traditional, Christian, and Muslim leaders to continue pushing for peace among their people in the way and manner they conduct themselves.

“The various governments at all levels should also take deliberate steps to address the issue of poverty and youth unemployment because the provision of stomach infrastructure is the surer way to tackle insecurity.

“Also, urgent steps should be taken consciously and intentionally to ameliorate the hardship of the people.”

PT