Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has faulted the Federal Government’s handling of abductors and believes President Bola Tinubu’s administration is treating the kidnappers with kid gloves.
Atiku said this in a statement by his spokesman, Paul Ibe, hours after the presidency announced the release of schoolgirls abducted in Kebbi State last Monday.
Presidential spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, had said the girls and another batch of students freed in Niger State, and about 38 worshippers from Kwara, were released without payment of ransom.
However, Ibe, in the statement released on Wednesday by Atiku Media Office, said, “Under Tinubu, terrorists/bandits have become an alternative government negotiating, collecting ransom, and walking away untouched while the presidency celebrates their ‘compliance’.”
“No serious nation applauds itself for negotiating with terrorists it claims to have under surveillance. No responsible government congratulates itself for allowing abductors to walk back into the forests to kidnap again. Onanuga and his ilk should stop insulting Nigerians with propaganda.
“If the security agencies truly had eyes on the kidnappers, then letting them escape is a national disgrace that smacks of complicity,” the statement read.
He described Onanuga’s comment as “a shameful attempt to whitewash a national tragedy and dress up government incompetence as heroism”.
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