Yari has failed us’ — protesters troop to Aso Rock over Zamfara killings

Some protesters marched to the presidential villa in Abuja on Saturday over the persistent killings in Zamfara state.

Suspected armed bandits have killed many people in the state.

On Friday, Sanusi Rikiji, speaker of the state house assembly, went on a condolence visit to Kaura Namoda emirate where at least 50 members of the civilian joint task force (CJTF) were killed in a single day.

Despite the deployment of a thousand security personnel on the orders of President Muhammadu Buhari in July 2018, the security situation has not improved.

Abdulaziz Yari, governor of Zamfara, has been criticised for not doing enough to curb the activities of these bandits.

On one occasion, Yari said he had resigned as the chief security officer of the state.

During the march, the protesters held placards which read “Shame on Yari”, “Silence is not an option”, ‘Nigeria is a failed state’, among others.

Speaking with journalists, Kadaria Ahmed, media personality and one of the conveners of the protest, blamed the governor for not showing “enough concern about killings” in the state.

Ahmed said Yari only cared “about the people of Zamfara when it comes to politics.”

“Our people are being killed like flies and it does not seem to matter to anybody, so that is why we are here and that is why we are marching,” she said.

“As far as I am concerned, that governor is the most useless in the history of Nigeria. This is a governor whose reaction to the killings in his state was to resign as chief security officer. He went on the record to say that he cannot be chief security officer. I don’t know what he is still doing in office.