Labour Party has condemned the abduction of over 300 school children of St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary School, Papiri, in Agwarra LGA of Niger State Niger State, and warned that the country is drifting dangerously towards state failure.
Interim National Chairman, Senator Esther Nenadi Usman, in a statement on Sunday, said if such a large number of children could be taken so effortlessly and without early detection, “then the crisis confronting us is far more alarming than many may yet appreciate.”
Senator Usman warned that the Nigerian state could no longer continue to watch helplessly while its citizens were attacked with reckless abandon.
“Our country is drifting dangerously towards the precipice of state failure, and this reality should trouble every well-meaning Nigerian.
“Nothing captures our national distress more starkly than the current surge of violence across the country,” she said.
The National Chairman regretted that schools, which she described as “the very beacon of hope and the pathway to the future for our children,” were now being shut down nationwide because the state could no longer guarantee their safety.
“This is unacceptable and should alarm every one of us,” she added, and called on the Nigerian state to act decisively to halt this dangerous descent into anarchy.
Usman further called on the government to address the hunger and extreme hardship ravaging the land, pointing out that any society where poverty has reached catastrophic levels, insecurity becomes an inevitable consequence.
“He who sows the wind should not be surprised to reap the whirlwind,” she warned, and wants the government to demonstrate a sincerity of purpose in its approach to insecurity.
“The present administration must go beyond routine condemnations of criminality and commence a real, structured, coordinated, and enduring process of policing the nation,” Usman demanded.
