Senate President Godswill Akpabio on Tuesday argued that no country in the world, including the United States, is entirely free of crime, insisting that kidnappings and killings should not provoke despair since criminality occurs everywhere.
Akpabio made the comment while presiding over plenary during an intense discussion on the killing of Brigadier-General Uba Musa in Borno State, the abduction of schoolgirls, and the killing of a vice principal in Kebbi.
As senators deliberated on how to harmonise resolutions on Nigeria’s escalating security challenges, Akpabio highlighted the country’s vast size and the strain on its security agencies — a position some critics described as an attempt to rationalise the continued wave of violent incidents.
“We sympathise deeply with the families affected, but we must remember that Nigeria is a very large country,” the Senate President said.
“It is not even possible to deploy one policeman to each polling unit during elections. Our security agencies are overstretched and often find themselves in places they shouldn’t ordinarily be,” he added.
He also stressed that crime is a universal phenomenon. “There is no society without crime. Even the almighty America records crime on a daily basis. But we must continue to do our best to minimise it,” Akpabio said.
His remarks, delivered as families of abducted schoolgirls anxiously await government intervention, sparked criticism from civil society organisations and some lawmakers, who contend that the Senate President appeared to downplay a security emergency that has reached critical levels.
