Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, a former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Reno Omokri, have condemned the second consecutive attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, just as HURIWA calls for arrest of Sheikh Gumi.
In a statement on Wednesday, Atiku expressed sadness over the news of fatalities during the Monday night ambush.
He noted that the audacity of a second offensive by terrorists raises serious concerns.
“We are now getting to know the extent of the loss of human lives and those missing in the Monday attack on the same route.”
Omokri, on his part, berated Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State and former Education Minister, Oby Ezekwesili, over the bandits attacks in the state.
Omokri described El-Rufai and Ezekwesili’s calmness following the attacks at the Kaduna International Airport and Kaduna-Abuja train as a form of terrorism.
In a tweet, the former presidential aide said the northern part of the country would be “boiling” if both attacks happened during Jonathan’s administration.
According to Omokri, El-Rufai and Ezekwesili would have been on the streets protesting if the attacks happened during Jonathan’s era.
“Northern Nigeria would be boiling and @elrufai and @ObyEzeks would be dancing naked in the street, if Jonathan was President when the Abuja-Kaduna train was bombed and terrorists took over Kaduna airport. But they are all calm. Hypocrisy is also a form of terrorism!” Omokri asserted.
Recall that on Saturday, bandits had attacked the Kaduna International Airport but were repelled by security agencies.
A few days later, bandits attacked a Kaduna-bound train.
Meanwhile, HURIWA has called on the Federal Government to arrest controversial Sheikh Abubakar Gumi.
Sheikh Gumi is an influential Islamic cleric who had persistently defended the bandits and other marauders in Northern Nigeria.
HURIWA, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, argued that Sheikh Gumi has been outspoken as a “bandits’ sympathiser” over the years including demanding blanket amnesty for daredevil bandits and venturing into the forests of Zamfara, Katsina, and Niger State to hold discussion with the dreaded bandits turning the North-West zone to another place of sorrow, tears and blood.
The rights group also said it was not enough for the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists as gazetted by the Federal Government in January 2022 following the order of Justice Taiwo Taiwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja.
Rather, the group said the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), should go further and also gazette “bandits’ sympathisers” like Gumi as terrorists sympathisers.
“Why did the Federal Government capture Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and slammed a blanket ban on his Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) only for pouring invective against the person of Buhari from his London United Kingdom base but the same government through the National Security Adviser to the President Major General Babagana Monguno even openly endorsed the clandestine meetings of terrorists with Sheikh Abubakar Gumi of Kaduna?” HURIWA queried.
“This is double standards and this is the reason why there is so much injustices all around this administration. Why is the government pretending like it never heard or read on the media when Sheikh Gumi said there will be war if the then bandits are declared as terrorists and that he will no longer interface with them after the declaration and now that the war foretold has started and innocent blood is being spilled.
“Why is the government not inviting Sheikh Gumi to say more than he knows about these terrorists he so much defended and even compared them to the Niger Delta resource control agitators? Why is Gumi bigger than the law but Mazi Nnamdi Kanu has been languishing in DSS underground cell and allegedly undergoing torture?” The human rights advocacy group demanded answers.”