The Presidency has said those responsible for the gruesome killing in the Southeast and other parts of the country would soon receive ‘tough responses’ from security forces.
Presidency also cautioned Nigerians against yielding to ploys by elements bent on setting the country on fire by refraining from indiscriminate sharing of contents capable of inciting violent reactions from the public.
Recent gruesome murders and destruction of properties in some parts of the country, especially in the Southeast, including the reported killing of a pregnant woman, her four children and some other victims, in a targeted attack, in Anambra State have been escalating the security atmosphere across the country.
The killings have been made more difficult for citizens to bear by the continued display of the bizarre pictures and videos of the atrocities on social media.
However, in a reaction by Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, the Presidency described the violent activities as barbaric, blaming the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant arm, the Eastern Security Network (ESN), for the breakdown of law and order in the Southeast.
While advising the public to exercise restraint in sharing multimedia contents on the social media, it noted that federal government agencies and experts had been deployed to carry out verification of some of the materials that had been circulating the social media and already causing discontent in parts of the country, to ascertain their factuality.
“The Presidency wishes to caution against any knee-jerk reactions, the creation of panic, disruption of lives and livelihoods, or even retaliatory violence following the viral videos of the alleged killings of non-indigenes by the Eastern Security Network (ESN) and its mother terrorist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
“While expert agencies are now verifying the factuality and veracity of the claims that accompany the horrid pictures being circulated, we call on all citizens to avoid hasty steps or conclusions that could exacerbate the situation, and on the contrary keep to a line of conduct that will help the law to take its proper course.
“The Presidency also cautions the public against the indiscriminate sharing of posts on social media so as to deny vested interests who seek to divide us and create disturbance the chance to do so.
“In the issuance of his very strong condemnation of these “wild, barbarous and wanton killings of innocent people” in the South-East as well as the other parts of the country, which he described as “deeply distressing,” President Muhammadu Buhari warns the perpetrators of these acts to expect tough response from the security forces,” the statement reads.
