Over 127 Civil Society Organizations (CSO) have called President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to take urgent steps to secure the lives and properties of Nigerians as a result of the incessant violence in the country .
Program Manager Governance and Development department, Yiaga Africa,
Ibrahim Faruk told newsmen in Abuja during a peaceful March to mark the National Day of Mourning and Remembrance Day 2021 stating that it is a symbolic action to register citizens’ dissatisfaction with the state of Nigeria’s national security .
He said the bleeding must stop and called that the Federal Government must take action to ensure that there is justice and those who are perpetrators of violence across the country are brought to book .
He said they are engaging the media , traditional institutions ,religious leaders to ensure to stare up the conscience of our leaders for them to take action to secure Nigeria .
In a related development, the Joint Action Civil Society Coalition/ Nigeria Mourns Secretariat called on government at all levels to provide leadership in ensuring that the security and welfare of all Nigerians is preserved as enshrined in section 14 (2 )(b) of the constitution.
In a joint statement signed by the Secretariate said “We also urged the presidency to provide political and moral leadership for the security crisis and ensure governmental actions are humane in tandem with section 17 (2)(C) of the Constitution.
“These responses from government have been neither sufficient nor adequate to stem the growing violence across the country.
“In particular, President Buhari remains indifferent to the growing toll of massacres, industrial scale abductions and lawless abuse of Nigerians all over the country.
“This week alone over 130 people were massacred in two separate incidents in Benue and Plateau states, without drawing a response from the president. It continues to appear as if the president is both indifferent to the suffering of Nigerians and unwilling to provide leadership in addressing it.
“As citizens, we cannot sit by and watch this happen. In 2018, we got together a coalition of concerned citizens to commemorate the lives and sufferings of victims of violence in our country in the first *National Day of Mourning* .
“Since then, we have marked 28 May of every year as a National Day of Mourning to remember all those whom we have lost to atrocity violence and also show solidarity with their families and communities.
“This year marks the fourth year of the National Day of Mourning. This year the activities of the National Day of Mourning 2021 will take place in every state of Nigeria, on social media and in the diaspora,”the statement read.
