A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain, Chief Emmanuel Ogidi, has advised the federal and state governments to intensify efforts to address the insecurity and economic challenges in the country.
The former PDP National Vice Chairman (South), said the prevailing level of killing, kidnapping and other crimes in the country were indications that more actions were required.
“We have not done enough to tackle insecurity. If we have done enough, we would have reduced it.
“There is no country in the world without crime, but the truth of the matter is that we have not done enough.”
Ogidi advised governments to encourage citizens to report crime and support relevant security agencies so that they could discharge their duties more effectively.
He also encouraged citizens not to give up in supporting government efforts to address insecurity in the country.
“My beloved Nigeria is a great country. We should change our narrative. We cannot give up. Government should encourage us not surrender. It is government responsibility to ensure that we don’t give up,” he said.
Ogidi also urged Nigerians to continue to pray for good leadership and for God to turn the hearts of the wicked to Himself.
On the recent killing of 17 soldiers in Okuama Community in Delta, Ogidi described it as brutal, evil, wicked and condemnable, saying nothing could justify killing of security personnel.
Ogidi, who believed that one killing did not justify the other, called for proper investigation into the matter and to ensure that such did not repeat itself in any part of the country.
He advised government and the army to ensure suspected to be involved in the act were not extra judiciously killed but be investigated and prosecuted upon their arrest.
“They need to be interrogated because we need to interrogate this killing.
“The killing of personnel of our armed forces, police, paramilitary is one too many. Government should take this advice seriously and not to escalate it, rather we should mitigate it.
“Such occurrence should not be allowed in the future. We have to prevent it,” he said.
Ogidi also appealed to Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta to continue to do whatever it takes to ameliorate the suffering of the people in the affected communities.
Ogidi, said the affected communities should give the needed support for proper investigation of the incident, and urged that nobody should be coax during the investigation process.
“When a man is terrified, he can say what he doesn’t want to say.