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Lafiagi Mayhem: Group demands justice, petitions Buhari, IGP, others

 

By Ahmed Ajikobi with agency reports

A group, Kwara Must Change has petitioned relevant authorities to seek justice for youths brutally murdered by soldiers in Lafiagi, Edu Local Government Area of Kwara State.
In a statement on Tuesday, the group addressed the petition to President Muhammadu Buhari  and copied the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, Chief of Army Staff, Abba Kyari, DG of SSS, Lawal Musa Daura, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara.
Also petitioned were the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Jogn Odigie Oyegun, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) counterpart, Sen Ahmed Makarfi and the Chairman of Nigeria’s Governors Forum, AbdulAziz Yari.
The group is demanding justice for the three promising youths who were brutally murdered and two others injured by soldiers through the order of Senator Muhammed Sha’aba Lafiagi last Friday.
The names of the victims were listed as: Abubakar Halassan (Confirmed dead), Ndigi Manyisa (Confirmed dead), Ladan Emisantali (Critical condition), Manko Bindofu (Critical condition)
and Musa Abdullahi (Confirmed dead).
The statement reads: “On Friday, 17th November 2017, five  bright and promising young men were shot by soldiers attached to Senator Sha’aba Lafiaji for exercising their fundamental human rights of peaceful protest to demand accountability from the senator representing their senatorial district. The victims were students of Lafiagi College of Education, Kwara State.
“We make bold to say that, the brutal killing of these defenceless youths was a needless waste of human life, engineered by a politician, who was once the Kwara State Governor and feels that he is above the laws of the land.
“It is our candidate view that, the supposed lawmaker has thus become a law breaker and must not escape from the wrath of the law.
“We are aware that it is unconstitutional for Senator Shaaba Lafiaji to deploy soldiers as personal security and more importantly, to cause the soldiers to open fire at peaceful, unarmed and civil protesters who are merely asking him to own up to his responsibility.”
The group therefore demand for government’s intervention in order to ensure proper medical attention for those victims lying in critical conditions.
It also requested the immediate arrest and prosecution of Senator Lafiagi and the soldiers for carrying out the heinous act against unarmed innocent citizens.
In addition, Kwara Must Change called for adequate compensation to the families of the deceased victims and those lying in critical condition.
In a related development, the Kwara State Commissioner of Police, Lawan Ado, has pledged to arrest those who razed the country home of Sen. Lafiagi, last Friday.
Ado stated this during a press briefing at the command headquarters, Ilorin on Monday adding that his officers area already gathering information based on the list provided.
“We have visited the place, we are doing our home work and we must get the suspects after trial they will be prosecuted. We have the list of the suspects and we are gathering information. To get them arrested is our next move.”
Ado stated further that the police are still investigating the alleged involvement of soldiers in the incident.
Recall that efforts by this medium to get Senator Lafiagi to speak on the occurrence proved abortive last weekend.

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