The Joint Action Civil Society Coalition (JACSC) will today mark the National Day of Mourning and Remembrance for the victims of violent attacks across the country.
The group stated this in a statement jointly signed by the Conveners, Abiodun Baiyewu and Chidi Odinkalu, on Wednesday in Abuja.
The group said the country had lost 7,904 Nigerians to violent killings across the country, with the first quarter of 2020 alone recording about one thousand four hundred and sixteen (1,416) of these deaths.
The statement read in part, “In parts of the North-East, Boko Haram continues to terrorize, killing thousands of Nigerians.
“In parts of the North-West, including Kajuru and Birnin-Gwari in Kaduna and much of Zamfara, Katsina States, and Taraba State in the North-Central, vast swathes of ungoverned territory have been taken over by rustlers, bandits and vigilantes whose preferred currency is blood.”
The rights group expressed worry over unabated extrajudicial killings and human rights abuses by state security personnel in nearly all the states where the COVID-19 lockdown was enforced.
“There has been no accountability for these killings. The pervasive impunity and frequency of violent killings in Nigeria are of grave concern to citizens and all people who wish our country well,” the statement added.
Nigerians are enjoined to wear black in remembrance of the victims of mass atrocities in various states.
