The Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, says the statement credited to him, alleging that security agents were dodging bandits and ridiculing victims of attacks is false.
The denial was made on his behalf by the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Inter-religious Council (NIREC), Prof. Cornelius Afebu Omonokhua, who released a statement on Tuesday refuting the claim.
The Sultan, who is also the President of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs and co-chairman of NIREC, reportedly made the allegation at a meeting of the Inter-religious body held in Abuja recently.
He is reported to have expressed concern about the increasing incidents of attacks in different states in the country since the general elections, describing the trend as worrisome.
He had said, “Throughout the campaigns and the elections, we never had these cases of insecurity. Suddenly, after the elections, the killings continued across Niger, Plateau, Kaduna and other places.
“These killings are definitely not related to religion, but the activities of some set of uninformed people.
“Imagine a situation where bandits would invade a community, kill people and destroy their properties, with little or no resistance from the security officials, only for the security officials to appear long after the attacks and perhaps, to mock the people or look at the ashes of destroyed items,” the respected monarch added.
However, dismissing the allegation, the monarch in a statement by Omonokhua on his behalf, read: “Some of the messages were misrepresented by some reporters. What he (Sultan) said was, ‘When bandits go into people’s communities and kill them and burn their houses and whatever, nothing is done.
“After the deed has been done, the security agents will now go there, to do what? To look at the ashes that have been burnt?’”
