Vice President, Osinbanjo Gives Reason Why Buhari Cannot Visit All Insurgent States
Nigeria's Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has defended President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to visit some parts of the country where there have been violence, killings and kidnappings in recent times.
Many commentators have criticized the President over his failure to visit some states where there have been killings from clashes, especially Benue State where over 70 persons lost their lives from attacks attributed to herdsmen early in the year.
The President has also been criticized for his failure to visit and condole with parents of 110 girls abducted from a school in Dapchi, Yobe State on 19, February, 2017.
But Osinbajo, in a recent chat with journalists asserted that ‘condolence and sympathy’ visits would not restore lost lives even as he noted that the President is working hard on improving the state of security in the country.
“Let me say it first that no amount of condolence can compensate for loss of lives, whether in Calabar, Mambilla or Benue or where people were killed in Adamawa or Zamfara, any of these states,” the Vice President who noted that he had visited some states where killings took place on behalf of the President said.
"Benue killing is one set of killing far too much; there is no amount of condolence that can compensate for that and I want to say that it’s a massive tragedy. I’ve been to Zamfara, I’ve been to Adamawa when this killing took place, I even visited Benue in September where there have been killing before; then I’ve visited them when the flooding took place and we looked at all the issues and tried to address many of these."
"There have been several of these issues in different places, recently Dapchi. We have expressed condolences, but no amount of condolence would do," said Osinbajo.
He added that the Presidency and security agencies are working to end insurgency and terrorism in the country as he noted that troops have been deployed to most part of the Northeastern Nigeria to combat terrorist groups.
Osinbajo noted that the wide scale deployment has overstretched the military, but government is working to empower the police to take on some of the security roles being performed by soldiers.
"We have to address the security question in a much more robust way; that the police are able to do these effectively. We have deployed the military to Kaduna, two battalions to Kaduna. In Benue and Taraba axis, we have the 93 battalion, we have 72 Special Forces. So, I think the most important thing is, first of all, to ensure they actually address the security of the people," said the VP.
Osinbanjo assured the country that security agencies are working round the clock to guarantee that all part of the country is taken from different groups terrorizing the country.