The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has criticised President Bola Tinubu for choosing to attend the Argungu Fishing Festival while over a thousand Kaiama abductees in Kwara State, including children and nursing mothers, are still in kidnappers’ captivity.
This, the party stated, is an indication that the president has lost touch with reality, “when he chose to attend a festival while funeral processions grow longer across the country as terrorists kill, burn, and abduct citizens under his watch.”
The party in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, said the Kaiama abduction is not an isolated case, stating that the southern part of Kwara State has been under sustained terrorist pressure since last year.
According to the ADC, the attacks are now spreading northward, and terrorists appear to be tightening their grip on the state and exploiting it as a potential safe haven.
“It is therefore shocking that the president could choose to attend a fishing festival while terrorists threaten to expand their operations,” the party stated.
ADC expressed worry at the emergence of a video allegedly released by terrorists in connection with the Kaiama abductions, which challenged the official figures on the number of kidnapped victims.
“This development comes amid fresh reports of terrorist activity in Patigi Local Government Area of the same state as recently as last night,” the statement noted.
The party warned that the unfolding event in Kwara State could pose great security implication to the Nigeria nation.
According to the ADC, the Kaiama axis provides a direct link into Oyo State, warning that any sustained insurgent activity within this corridor could create wider vulnerabilities across parts of the North Central and South West.
“The situation in Kwara State must not be treated as an isolated incident but as a potential early warning of geographic expansion by terror actors,” the party said.
It added that when non-state actors become emboldened to publicly contradict official figures, “it signals a troubling erosion of deterrence and raises serious questions about the management of both the security and information environments.”
The party noted that it had previously warned against payment of ransom to terrorists, whether directly or indirectly, as such could further entrench the criminal economy that sustains mass abductions.
“While the safe return of victims remains paramount, disguising ransom payments as rescue operations only creates perverse incentives for future attacks,” ADC stated.
It therefore recommended that the Federal Government should immediately mount a robust and well-coordinated rescue operation to bring every abducted Nigerian safe home.
The government, the party further advised, should “issue a full and transparent public briefing that resolves the emerging discrepancies around the number of victims,” as well order an urgent security audit of the Kaiama and Kainji Lake forest corridor.
ADC also called for deployment and strengthening of interstate security coordination across the Kwara, Niger, and Oyo axis to shut down further terrorist movement, and should as well, maintain regular and credible public communication to restore confidence and deny terrorists the advantage of propaganda.
“Nigerians are tired of the APC and Bola Tinubu-led government’s assurances on security while citizens continue to be slaughtered at will.
“What the country needs is a government and a president who demonstrably care and will do everything necessary to protect the people.
“That urgency is tragically lacking under the present administration,” ADC regretted.
