The Vice-Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, Mr Peter Obi, has condemned in the strongest terms the incessant killing of Nigerians on the country’s highways. Obi was reacting to the killing, on Thursday, of a popular Kogi-based businessman, Mr Chuks Ofodile, along the Gegu-Koton Federal Highway in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital.
Obi, in a statement on Friday by his Media Office, lamented that “the rapidity with which Nigerian lives are taken is not met with commensurate and visible efforts to address the security lapses.” He therefore called on federal and state governments to wake up to their responsibilities.
Describing as highly regrettable, the killing of Mr Offodile, who owned a chain of supermarkets across the country, Obi said: “Entrepreneurs like him, who started from nothing but by dint of hard work rose to positions where they have contributed immensely to the building of a better country through assisting government on employment, payment of taxes and fulfilment of other obligations, should be accorded deserved treatment.”
The former Anambra State Governor appealed to federal, state and local authorities “to strengthen security and save the lives of Nigerians, including entrepreneurs that will assist in the employment of Nigerians, especially now it has been conclusively proven that job loss is concomitant with the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Speaking further, Obi said that “if the security situation is left to deteriorate, it will scare away investors, with the attendant negative effects on the economy, in addition to the psychological havoc such killings would wreak on Nigerians who are battling the global COVID-19 pandemic.”
Concluding, Obi prayed for the peaceful repose of the soul of Mr Chuks Offodile as well as the souls of all those who died in similar circumstances. He also prayed God to comfort those they left behind.