The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has cautioned President Bola Tinubu against entering into covert negotiations with terrorists, warning that such actions could deepen Nigeria’s security crisis.Speaking to journalists at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday after a closed-door meeting of party and coalition leaders, ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said while the party welcomed the release of abducted victims, including worshippers kidnapped from Christ Apostolic Church, Oke-Isegun in Kwara State, and schoolgirls taken from Government Girls Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi State, the government must explain the “opaque and troubling manner” in which their freedom was secured.
“We strongly believe that this administration is negotiating deals with insurgents,” Abdullahi said, adding that conflicting official accounts showed “the Federal Government is not being honest with Nigerians.”
He criticised comments attributed to presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, who suggested that kidnappers “came out voluntarily for the peace talk” or released victims because government “asked them nicely.” Abdullahi described such claims as unacceptable in a country battling violent crime.
“Is the Nigerian government paying ransom to insurgents? What exactly was exchanged for the so-called surrender of weapons? And if these bandits truly surrendered weapons, what prevents them from simply acquiring new ones and continuing their criminal enterprise?” he asked.
The ADC warned that negotiating with bandits would only “expand the banditry economy,” citing fresh attacks in Kwara State’s Ekiti Local Government where 11 residents were abducted barely a day after earlier victims were freed.
The party also condemned the closure of 47 unity schools over rising abductions, saying the move emboldened terrorists. “By closing schools, the Tinubu administration is reinforcing the very ideology Boko Haram was built upon. This government is effectively telling the world that it cannot protect Nigeria’s schoolchildren,” Abdullahi said.
He further criticised the government’s failure to provide a clear figure of abducted schoolchildren in recent incidents, calling the confusion “a damning indictment” of its security management.
The ADC urged the Federal Government to revive the Safe Schools Initiative, deploy NSCDC personnel to unity schools, and ensure the immediate rescue of all abducted children.
The statement followed a meeting attended by coalition leaders including ADC National Chairman Senator David Mark, former SGF Babachir Lawal, former Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, former Rivers State governor Rotimi Amaechi, former ADC chairman Dr. Ralph Nwosu, and Abdullahi. The gathering is part of ongoing efforts to strengthen the opposition front after former Vice President Atiku Abubakar formally registered with the ADC earlier this week.
