...Condemns Ritual Killings, Attacks on Security Agents

President Muhammadu Buhari Friday reacted to the violent attack on the new Cattle Market at  Omumauzor, Ukwa West LGA, Abia State, describing it as a horrific crime which would be visited with the "strictest of punishment under our laws"

The President further commended the Abia State government for its swift response in handling the  incident and bringing it under control.

President Buhari further appealed for calm, even as he sympathizes with the victims who had lost persons and properties in the incident stated his Media Aide, Mallam Garba Shehu in a press release: "The President further condemned the incidents of ritual killings, hate crimes, and killing of law enforcement officers across the nation",  the release stated.

According to the release,  President Buhari urged law enforcement agencies, state governments, local authorities, community and religious leaders to take all lawful actions to prevent further incidents of such nature, and to put in place measures against the normalization of these primitive acts, hate crimes and acts of terror.

“I condemn these dastardly acts of violence and pray for the souls of the departed,” said the President, adding that the courts of the land must apply “the strictest of punishment under our laws to the perpetrators of these horrific crimes.”

President Buhari maintained that killings in the name of rituals, political agitation and tribal hatred are not in tandem  with the tenets of Nigeria's religious inclination and membership of  the civilized and enlightened cultures, maintaining  that "no person has the right to take the law in his or her own hands." 

The President further  reemphasized the need for all Nigerians to be their brother’s keeper and must such  attacks,  be it verbal or physical on anyone, as an attack on the very essence that keeps us as a nation.