Nigeria's opposition Peoples Redemption Party has urged authorities to embed civilian populations into counterterrorism operations, arguing that residents hold irreplaceable surveillance insights about insurgent logistics and transit patterns that formal security apparatus desperately lacks. National Chairman Falalu Bello warned that the government's willingness to negotiate with armed militants elevates criminal networks into legitimate political actors while gutting state credibility, demanding an immediate halt to backroom talks that he says reward violence and fracture command structures.
The call followed kidnappings at St. Mary's School in Niger State's Papiri district, where over 315 students and faculty vanished, alongside 25 abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi, slain law enforcement members across Kwara and Bauchi, and the killing of Brigadier General M. Uba. The party condemned what it labeled theatrical responses from officials as terror cells expand far beyond Sambisa Forest, signaling an accelerating erosion of internal control mechanisms.
The call followed kidnappings at St. Mary's School in Niger State's Papiri district, where over 315 students and faculty vanished, alongside 25 abducted schoolgirls in Kebbi, slain law enforcement members across Kwara and Bauchi, and the killing of Brigadier General M. Uba. The party condemned what it labeled theatrical responses from officials as terror cells expand far beyond Sambisa Forest, signaling an accelerating erosion of internal control mechanisms.
