Reps Caucus Decry Insecurity Along Abuja-Kaduna Highway. *Urges security agents to arrest kidnappings banditry cases.

Jonas Ezieke, Abuja

Members of Kaduna State Caucus in the House of Representatives have decried the spate of unending insecurity including kidnapping, killings, banditry and other crimes along the ever busy Kaduna-Abuja Highway calling on all patriotic citizens of Nigeria to assist the state.

The Caucus lamented that the safety of travellers along the Abuja-Kaduna road which is a critical national infrastructure and the gateway between the northern and southerner part of the country is gradually been taken over by banditry.

Addressing a press conference at the House wing of the National Assembly on the issue on Thursday the Caucus Leader Hon.Garba Datti said that the nation had lost huge amount of human and material resources in this seemingly unabating insecurity on the highway.

The lawmaker and eight other members of the caucus said that the safety of travellers on this popular highway should be guaranteed by the government as the frequent kidnappings and killings on the road infringes on the rights of Nigerians.

The lawmaker said that insecurity situation along the Abuja-Kaduna road which appeared to have been minimised through concerted efforts of all citizens had been heightened by the high number of cases of kidnappings, killings and banditry on the road in recent times.

He said: “In the last five (5) days, it has reached its deplorable and lamentable peak as a spate of attacks, killings, abductions, kidnappings and robberies that engulfed the Abuja-Kaduna Highway has resulted in a crisis of frightening and calamitous proportions.

“On Sunday November 21st 2021 in the most publicized but certainly not the only one of such daring attacks over the last few days, a retired Director of Protocol of the Federal Capital Territory Development Authority (FCDA) and a Governorship candidate in Zamfara State Hamidu Sagir was brutally killed while yet to be ascertained commuters were abducted in terrifying circumstances”.

The lawmaker and his colleagues had pointed out that the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (as amended) has provided that the state should guarantee the freedom of movement of all Nigerians.

The caucus therefore called on the nation’s security agencies to secure the lives and properties of Nigerians by deploying their men and resources to check the frequent cases of kidnapping on the road.

The group also commended the efforts of the Kaduna State Government in addressing the the challenge noting that without such efforts the insecurity cases on the road would have been worse.