Disturbed by the precarious security situation in some states in the country, the blue-collar oil union, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN has called for an overhaul of the country’s security architecture.
PENGASSAN made the call in a statement issued in Lagos Monday.
The influential union called for “an immediate declaration of a state of emergency and overhaul of the nation’s security apparatus.’’
The spokesman for the association, Mr Fortune Obi, said that a state of emergency was necessary because “the security networks as presently constituted have lost their value and focus.’’
He said there has been numerous cases of destruction of property and incessant shedding of blood in Nigeria.
”The growing rate of insecurity in the land has become a nightmare. Daily, stories of killings in states, especially Borno, Zamfara, Kaduna, Sokoto, Yobe and Adamawa saturate the mass media.
”The Boko Haram sect and violent herdsmen have been notorious for blood shedding and destruction of property of innocent victims.
“We condemn in totality these atrocities and find the situation highly unacceptable,” he said.
Boko Haram has killed no fewer than 28,000 people and displaced millions, since the group launched its deadly campaign 10 years ago.
Obi said that the bloody activities of the groups had become news-worthy for the international community but that the development was putting Nigeria in negative perspective and scaring prospective investors.
He lamented that it was reported recently that Boko Haram hijacked a commercial bus conveying passengers from Port Harcourt and killed them.
”This occurrence and other related activities have made travelling through Nigerian roads, including the East-West road in Rivers a nightmare.
“The Nigeria police in reaction to this declared a state-of-emergency on the Rumuji, Ndele, Rumuekpe axis on April 28,” Obi said.
(NAN)
