A FORMER governor of Abia State, Senator Orji Kalu, has said that the killings and abductions in Nigeria are politically motivated.
Kalu said the bandits formenting violent attacks in different parts of the country were sponsored by politicians to destabilise the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
According to him, the politicians responsible want Tinubu to fail just as they did to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He, however, did not disclose the names of the alleged sponsors.
“What we are seeing is always a routine, something that goes with the elections, and when you have an election, people will try to pressure the government in power for all kinds of things to start happening.
“And you can remember when President Jonathan was here, a similar thing happened,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics monitored by News Point Nigeria.
“They put a lot of pressure on the President.
“And the terrorists and the bandits are orchestrated by some members of the international community and local people who really want to destabilise the government,” he added.
According to the Abia senator, what Nigerians are witnessing is “something that goes with the elections,” when people try to pressure the government in power “for all kinds of things to start happening”.
“And the terrorists and the bandits are orchestrated by some members of the international community and local people who really want to destabilise the government,” he stated.
He, however, said that President Tinubu had shown that he was equal to the task.
“But I’m sure you can see that President Tinubu is equal to the task; for the first time, you see the president cancelling all his engagements.
“Today is Sunday, and he faced security challenges. He faced everything about security,” Kalu said.
“Those [abducted] girls will be recovered. The government is making every effort to make sure these people are recovered, and it’s because of a few announcements internationally and locally, talking about Nigeria’s insecurity. I’m sure it’s not the best of times for us.
“It’s not a very good time for Nigerian people and Nigerian citizens. Our service chiefs, our security operatives have gone fully on duty to see what they can do,” he added.
The federal lawmaker also linked the surge in attacks to the recent comment by President Donald Trump about killings in Nigeria.
“For the past few months, we have been quiet on President [Donald] Trump talks about people being killed in Nigeria, and you can see people talk about the 2027 election this and that, and you can see these are all about politics, but we’re equal to the task,” the former governor said.
“The Federal Government will move to challenge these people.
“These people are partially missionaries bought by politicians. These people are people bought by individuals.
“These people are people centred to destabilise the President who is ready to fight for our economy, that is ready to revamp the economy that’s been trying his best to see what he can do,” he stated.
Asked whether Tinubu was aware of this, he said, “The President is the president of Nigeria, and the president of Nigeria has a lot of information around him.”
Speaking further, he senator said Tinubu was having sleepless nights about the security situation in Nigeria.
He, however, said the withdrawal of police officers attached to very important persons (VIPs) ordered by Tinubu was a good decision.
Kalu said that Trump’s intervention in Nigeria would be good when the US president consulted with the Federal Government.
He said Nigeria needs to work together with the US to make things work.
“We need to work together with the United States of America. We need that partnership,” he added.