The Advocacy Centre for Development has expressed concern over the deaths of 2,545 security officers and 17,886 civilians, as well as the kidnapping of 15,597 people between 2019 and 2023.
Disclosing this on Friday in Gombe State at the end of a one-day roundtable interaction with stakeholders on National Day of Mourning, Convener and Team Lead Ibrahim Yusuf chastised the political class for the senseless deaths.
This year commemorates the seventh National Day of Mourning, which was announced by the Joint Nigeria Crisis Action Committee on May 28, 2018.
The day was declared to protest the country’s degree of impunity and the frequency with which violent killings occur.
According to a statement issued in 2018 by Chidi Odinkalu, Yemi Adamolekun, Abiodun Baiyewu, Ier Jonathan-Ichaver, and Auwal Musa (Rafsanjani) on behalf of the JN-CAC Co-Ordinating Committee, the day of national mourning will be marked by a series of activities aimed at remembrance, solidarity, and awakening to the nation’s challenges.
Speaking during the seventh edition in Gombe, Yusuf condemned the military’s irresponsible usage in civil concerns, asking for a stop to killings and kidnappings in the country.
Yusuf said:
“The killing of 2,545 security officers and 17, 886 civilians as well as abduction of 15,597 persons from 2019 to 2023 across the country were the clear absence of political will.
“The armed forces are deployed in all 36 states of Nigeria on internal security operations, thereby retrenching the constitutional role of the Nigeria Police Force. This is a constitutional anomaly. The rise in fatalities from military operations shows that the military is over-stretched. This cannot continue.
“Here in Gombe State, we have issues of farmer/herder clashes in some communities of the state during the rainy season and we are calling on the state government and the security agencies and the traditional institutions to do the needful, without fear or favour, by putting an end to the issues of unrest in the state.
“As Nigerians bleed, we have come together on this seventh National Day of Mourning to ask the people in authority to take urgent steps in preventing the menace.”
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