Nigeria Union of Journalists on Monday, said that the recent killings in Benue State has the capacity to end public confidence in Nigeria, and negatively impact the international image of the country.
In a statement by NUJ National Secretary, Achike Chude, said in the past few days, the world has been horrified by the killings of over a hundred innocent citizens of Benue State in Nigeria.
The union noted that in the past 15 years, various governments across political lines have struggled ineffectively to fulfill this crucial obligation.
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NUJ added that the killings is one more killing too many and must provoke sufficient national outrage to galvanize nationwide sentiments of defiance and challenge to galvanize every resource of the state against all killers and harbingers of evil in our country be they terrorists, bandits, unknown gunmen, kidnappers or herdsmen.
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The statement partly reads: “These killings, coming on the heels of other violent tragedies that have led to the gruesome loss of lives have the capacity to erode public confidence in the nation-state, and negatively impact the international image of Nigeria.
“Nigeria needs her citizens to believe in her capacity to keep them safe and secure. This is the most basic of all enshrined responsibilities of the state. Section 2 of the 1999 Federal Constitution as amended makes an uncompromising declaration on the primary duty of the state to keep her citizens safe.
“As we have maintained in previous lamentations on the killings of our peoples from the north, east, south, and west of our geopolitical space, we refuse to believe that the Nigerian State has lost the ability to protect both her territories and her peoples.
“We refuse to believe that a country that sacrificed the lives of her soldiers to ensure lasting peace abroad in Liberia and Sierra Leone now lacks the will and ability to defend the homestead.
“We welcome the statements of condemnation of the Benue tragedy from prominent Nigerians across all divides, especially from the president and commander-in-chief of the Nigeria armed forces, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”
