Insecurity, kidnaping:Uzum Condemns Excessive Use Of Force On Peaceful Protesters In Abraka

By JOHNSON EBIGIDE

Eugene Azuka Uzum has condemned the alleged attack on residents and youths in Abraka in Delta State, who were peacefully protesting against rampant cases of kidnapping in the university town and its environs.

Uzum, a lawyer, policy analyst, politician and youth advocate, stated this against the unsavory reports of the excessive use of force to disperse the peaceful protesters in Abraka.

He said that the use of force by men of the Nigerian Army who were reported to have shot at the protesters was unfortunate and uncalled for, adding that it runs against the
fundamentals of democratic dispensation to invite the military to attack unarmed youths and residents for protesting against rising spate of insecurity in the area.

Uzum wondered why same urgency with which the protesters were attacked by the military had not been applied in curbing insecurity in the university town, adding that such an attitude was nothing but showcasing ineptitude in the maintenance of law and order.

He called on the state government to tighten stronger security in the Abraka axis of the state, lamenting the reported withdrawal of many students from the university and residents relocating to safer grounds away from Abraka because of untamed insecurity.

He further called on the state government to take further steps by directing local government chairmen across the state to take more responsibility in protecting the lives and properties of the people, just as he frowned at a situation where residents were being kidnapped, raped, maimed and killed while local government authorities were busy commissioning lock up shops amidst the highest level of insecurity in their localities.

It would be recalled that several residents of Abraka had staged a peaceful protest for days at the popular Police-Abbi Junction in Abraka to attract the attention of the relevant authorities to the rising spate of insecurity in the town without anybody coming out to address them.

It was also reported that students of the Delta State University in the town joined in the protest and that instead of addressing the peaceful protesters, men of the Nigerian Army allegedly arrived, shooting sporadically at the venue of the protest and beat up the protesters, sending many into the hospitals with various degrees of injuries.