Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
About 3,750 persons were said to have lost their lives in Nigeria as a result of the activities of suspected herdsmen, ethnic militia and insurgency since the beginning of 2018.
A group, the Next Generation Youth Initiative International (NeGYII), gave this statistics in a statement, on Monday, to commemorate National Day of Mourning in Nigeria.
According to the group, “Since the beginning of the year 2018, about 3750 lives have been lost across Nigeria with the dominance in North Central to suspected herdsmen, ethic militia and insurgency in the North East of Nigeria. This act by every standard depicts barbarism, callousness and cruelty of the highest degree.”
In the statement which was made available to Daily Sun, President of NeGYII, Mr. Ambassador Onoja, called on the federal government to rejig the security apparatus of the country as a way of bring to an end further killings in Nigeria.
“Government has tried over time and engaged in several interventions to contain this killings and high level of insecurity across the nation. However and regrettably it seems they are overwhelmed.
“While we commend the efforts of government in this direction we implore the government to do more by broadening her intervention approach as well rejig the security apparatus to ensure transparency and neutrality while holding the standard of best global practices in high regards in its operations.
“This is because the allegation of the security agencies being involved and taking sides is rife across Nigeria including human rights abuse of citizens.
Onoja expressed the commitment of NeGYII and its partner, CLEEN Foundation and partner work to ensure the safety and sanctity of human lives, democracy, good governance, Youth empowerment, gender mainstreaming and environmental safety and sustainability in the country.
“As we commemorate today as a day of mourning in Nigeria for these unwarranted killings, we convey with heavy hearts our heart-laden condolences to the families of the bereaved and the good people of Nigeria especially the middle belt region where this evil is predominant.
We use this occasion to call for an end and total halt to further killings in any part of Nigeria. We also make demand on the government to intensify its effort to contain the current insecurity in Nigeria while we call on all Nigerians to be vigilant and security conscious at all times.
The group also called on the international community to intervene in the unwarranted killings of innocent citizens in Nigeria with a view to halting the ugly incidence and helping the federal government bring the perpetrators to justice and ensuring that the victims get justice.