The United Nations has come out to condemn the spate of kidnappings under the Tinubu-led federal government and the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), citing the north central territory of the Nigerian State as an area of concern.
The global body, in the same vein lent its voice for justice and stated that the perpetrators should face justice, reports Daily Independent.
“We are shocked at the recent surge in mass abductions in north-central Nigeria,” UN rights office spokesman Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.
“We urge the Nigerian authorities — at all levels — to take all lawful measures immediately to ensure such vile attacks are halted and to hold those responsible to account.”
His comments came as the recent abduction of hundreds of Nigerians, including almost 350 schoolchildren in just a matter of days, has reignited a pressing debate about the persistent security crisis gripping the country.
“At least 402 people, most of them schoolchildren, have been abducted in the states of Niger, Kebbi, Kwara and Borno since 17 November,” Kheetan said, adding that “only 88 of them have reportedly been freed or have escaped from their captors”.
He called on “Nigerian authorities to ensure the safe return of all those still in captivity to their families, and to prevent further abductions”.
“They must also hold prompt, impartial and effective investigations into abductions and bring those responsible to justice.”
Mounting security fears in Africa’s most populous nation have sparked a wave of school closures across some parts of the country.
Since Islamist militants kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls from Chibok town in northeast Borno State more than a decade ago, Nigeria has struggled with a spate of mass kidnappings, mostly carried out by criminal gangs looking for ransom payments.
Borno State is also the centre of a long-running Islamist insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people since 2009.
