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The Labour Party (LP) has condemned in the strongest terms the massacre of worshippers in Katsina State and the abduction of scores of residents by terrorist bandits, describing the attack as another tragic proof of the collapse of security under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

In a statement signed by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Prince Tony Akeni Le Moin, and released on Thursday, August 28, 2025, the LP said it was “deeply saddened” by the killings in Unguwar Mantau village, Malumfashi Local Government Area of Katsina State, where terrorists shot dead 30 Muslims during morning prayers inside a mosque, locked more than 20 others inside their homes and set them ablaze, before abducting 76 men, women, and children.

“The Labour Party of Nigeria wishes to express our deepest condolences to the families of casualties and survivors of the Katsina mosque massacre, and subsequent mass abduction of innocent citizens by terrorist bandits, which took place last Tuesday August 19,” the statement read. The party also condoled with “the Acting Governor of Katsina state, Alh. Faruk Lawal Jobe, and other government functionaries of conscience who must be sorely disconcerted by yet another chapter of wanton killings.”

The LP said it deliberately delayed issuing its statement until it received confirmation about the fate of the abducted villagers. “We were waiting for progress on the rescue of these citizens before putting out our statement. Happily, we have just confirmed today Thursday August 28 that the mass of abducted Katsina villagers have been rescued,” it declared.

Highlighting the insecurity nightmare in Katsina and across the Middle Belt and northern states, the statement quoted Usman Usman, councillor representing Almu Ward in Malumfashi Local Government Council, who revealed: “The bandits have decreed that the farmers of these communities will only be allowed to enter their farms between the hours of 8am and 1pm, after which they must vacate the farms or be abducted or killed.” Another resident, according to LP, corroborated that despite each farming household previously paying a ₦10,000 protection fee to the bandits, “they still strike at will on a regular basis, cart away unchallenged their livestock and in one recent case took five residents with them into their forest lairs.”

The party expressed shock that within 48 hours of the Unguwar Mantau killings, more than a dozen other Katsina communities were overrun and a ₦15 million levy imposed on them. “This information has since been corroborated to be true by local residents, including a serving councillor of Almu ward, one of the bandits’ overrun communities,” the statement noted.

Lamenting the bloodshed, the LP said: “Aggregating these distressing data and gross shortcomings of Nigeria’s security governance by the APC-led administration, our hearts bleed and our prayers go out to the immediate family, clerics of the attacked mosque, the ransomed communities’ leadership and the good people of Katsina state in general.”

The party described the killings as part of “a deadly assault on humanity, a continued regression to stone age savagery” and said the APC governments of former President Muhammadu Buhari and his successor Bola Ahmed Tinubu were aware of the security crisis but had failed to provide solutions. “It is even more saddening when you reflect on several factors that ought to have made the Unguwar mosque attack both avoidable and impossible,” it stressed.

Taking aim at Nigeria’s rising security budgets, the party declared: “It is only with the ruling APC administration that such paradox is a regular assault to logic and sensibility of the Nigerian people: the more security budgets rise, the more insecurity, violent crimes and killings rise across the country.” It noted that between 2016 and 2022, Nigeria spent $9.9 billion under Buhari’s administration on tackling insecurity, with the defence budget rising from $2.4 billion in 2020 to $4.5 billion, while Tinubu in 2025 raised it to ₦6.57 trillion. The police budget also climbed from ₦783 billion in 2022 to ₦969.6 billion in 2024.

The LP also underscored the irony that Katsina State, which produced two presidents — the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, whom it praised as “the best ever,” and Muhammadu Buhari, whom it called “the worst ever” — was still plagued by insecurity despite hosting several military and security establishments, including the Natsinta Barracks, home of the Nigerian Army’s 17 Brigade and 35 Battalion. “With the above plethora of security presence, paraphernalia and personnel existing and drawing huge federal and state budget shares from government, why do the free killing sprees and abductions for ransom still happen almost frequently and at will?” the party asked.

The statement blasted the APC governments for offering condolence visits instead of solutions. “Between the PDP and APC maladministration of Nigeria, in spite of Nigeria’s staggering annual defence budgets… reports of Nigerians who die everyday are worse than countries in full-blown war and chilling,” it stated.

Citing records, the LP said between 2006 and 2021, 50,252 Nigerians died from terrorist killings and another 51,425 from violent crimes, making a total of 101,677 deaths — an average of 57 Nigerians killed daily. It compared this to Ukraine’s death toll in its war with Russia, which stood at 73,920 over four years, or 50 deaths per day. “Nigeria is not at war yet loses 57 citizens per day, seven corpses more than Ukraine, over a comparative period scale. Who says Nigeria is not at war?” the statement asked.

The party defended Canada’s designation of the PDP and APC as terrorist organisations, saying, “If you are wondering or are still senselessly outraged that the Canadian government declared PDP and APC as terrorist organizations instead of political parties, gerrit now or forgerrabourrit.”

Directing its anger at National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu, the LP said: “The function of the National Security Adviser of a country as large and continentally significant as Nigeria is not wearing starched agbada flying with presidential delegations from one state ceremony of mass burials to the other to deliver condolence speeches.” It accused him of being more interested in ceremonies than in preventing bloodshed, adding: “If Ribadu has forgotten these functions, he should revise his Kuru training manuals and, if they are outdated as he has become, he should take a refresher course on 21st century counter-insurgency security protocols.”

The Labour Party concluded by calling on President Tinubu to either act decisively or leave office. “If President Tinubu cannot provide this principal function for Nigerians, he should sack Nuhu Ribadu, reconfigure his armed services rank and file and step up his security governance over our citizens or do Nigeria a patriotic favour by sacking himself too,” it declared.

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