President Muhammadu Buhari has called for the strictest punishments to be meted on ritual killers and those responsible for attacks on police officers and various police formations across the country.
In a statement released by his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, President Buhari denounced the dastardly acts of violence and prayed for the souls of the departed.
Expressing the sympathy of the nation to families of all the victims, President Buhari urged law enforcement agencies, state governments, local authorities, community, and religious leaders to take all lawful actions to prevent further incidents of this nature and to put in place measures against the normalization of these primitive acts, hate crimes and acts of terror.
The president said that killings in the name of rituals, political agitation, and tribal hatred are not in keeping with the tenets of our religions and of the civilized and enlightened cultures we are all claiming to be, adding that “no person has the right to take the law in his or her own hands.”
Furthermore, the president re-emphasized the need for all Nigerians to be their brother’s keeper and should see an attack, be it verbal or physical on anyone, as an attack on the very essence that keeps us as a nation.
Meanwhile, President Buhari has commended the government of Abia state for the actions it has so far taken after some traders at the New Cattle Market, in Ukwa Local Government Area of the state were attacked by some assailants.
Linda Ikeji
