Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has appealed to Muslims in Nigeria to pray for the end of the spectre of insecurity currently haunting the country.
In an Eid-al-Fitr Sallah message marking the end of the 30-month-long Ramadan fasting period, the former vice president regretted that the terrorists have shed so much blood in the name of religion and, therefore, urged all Muslims to pray to God to defeat and destroy these evil-doers masquerading behind the name of religion.
Atiku said the dark agenda of the terrorist defies any clearly defensible goals, adding that their activities contradict all the tenets of the Islamic religion, including the injunctions on the sanctity of life.
He advised Muslims to join hands with other Nigerians of goodwill to defeat the terrorists’ agenda of trying to provoke sectarian crisis by attacking the places of worship.
“The terrorists spare neither Muslims nor Christians,” Atiku said. “Thus Nigerians must be united against them so that we don’t play into their hands by helping them to achieve their agenda of seeking to divide and dismember our dear country by causing deliberate provocations.”
On the current security challenges, Atiku said the nation’s security operatives should be ahead of the terrorists by nipping their plots in the bud. He enjoined all Nigerians to assist the security agencies by being vigilant, while also furnishing them with information that may enhance their efficiency in dealing decisively with the insurgency and other criminal activities plaguing the country.
Atiku Abubakar all urged political leaders to urgently deal with the hardships of the ordinary people in the country. He explained that the worsening level of poverty and unemployment, which feed criminal tendencies, is embarrassing and needs to be redressed.
