The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, has advocated penalties for security breaches such as that which resulted in the July 5 attack on the Kuje correctional facility in Abuja.
Kwankwaso, a former Governor of Kano State, spoke during The People’s Townhall 2023, a live programme organised by Channels Television in Abuja on Sunday evening.
He stated that nobody in Nigeria should be over and above the law.
“One of the issues that we’re having, in our opinion, today in Nigeria is that everything goes. Nobody is punished — 100 people killed, 50 people killed, one person killed. That’s the story,” he said.
“A place was broken; so many people escaped. It doesn’t matter, and so on and so forth. There must be the issue of penalties. There must be an issue of reward. If you do the right thing, you would give the necessary reward. If you’re wrong, you are wrong.
“These are some of the things that are already in our manifesto or blueprint. In the first place, it must be prevented. Even from the official versions we hear, there were so many missing links.
“We were told that many of them, according to the information, people were being seen around for a long time. And that is what even happened with Boko Haram.”
According to the NNPP presidential candidate, though many of such attempts began in Kano, his administration passed on the information for swift response.
“Every time, for many obvious reasons, people are finding it difficult to take the action at the right time, that timing is very critical, that’s what happened in that case. What we would have done is to prevent, to make sure it didn’t happen,” Kwankwaso said.
“Of course, you have to make provision. For any security breach to happen for hours in any part of Abuja is most unfortunate. I will tell you that our reaction (time) in Kano at that particular time was not more than 10 minutes within the metropolitan (area).
“We provided all the vehicles, we provided all the communications necessary to function effectively. We gave them all what they required and they were staged at critical positioned in Kano. And when you called, maximum at that time — I don’t know if it’s the same now — 10 minutes, somebody will be there.”
