Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja, FCT
The Minority Caucus in the House of Representatives has condemned the killing of protesters by suspected security operatives at Lekki Toll Gate, Lagos State, and other parts of the country, on Tuesday.
The caucus in a statement by the Minority Leader, Ndudi Elumelu, on Wednesday, said that ‘such wicked act of extra-judicial killing of defenceless citizens, by suspected agents of the state, cannot be justified or condoned under any rule or guise whatsoever.’
The caucus, while commiserating with the families of the victims, charged President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently rejig Nigeria’s security architecture through extensive reforms.
The opposition lawmakers urged President Buhari to urgently replace the service chiefs with more competent and professional hands to assist in effectively handling of the security challenges confronting the nation.
‘As lawmakers and representatives of the people, we cannot accept this gruesome execution of our young ones in their own country by security operatives. Life is sacred and no one has the right to terminate the life of another just because he has the apparatus of state power.
‘Such brazen brutally and defilement of right to life, which is at the centre of the on-going protests across the nation, underscores the demand for an immediate and total overhaul of our nation’s security architecture.
‘We, therefore, call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately order the arrest and prosecution of officers involved in the Lekki killing as well as the withdrawal of soldiers from engaging protesters,’ the lawmakers stated.