Nigerian celebrities, on Wednesday, condemned the Monday attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train that left many dead and several others injured.
The celebrities, who took to their several social media platforms to bemoan the dastardly act and mourn the victims, also demanded that a state of emergency be declared over the nation’s insecurity.
The celebrities who aired their grievances include veteran Nollywood actor, Richard Mofe Damijo, known better as RMD, singer and songwriter, Folarin Falana, aka Falz, popular actress Funke Akindele-Bello, among others.
Lamenting the state of insecurity on his Instagram handle on Wednesday, RMD noted that the terror attack confirmed the state of Nigerians ‘brokenness’.
According to him, on the road, at the airport, train station, nowhere is safe anymore. This is the extent of our brokenness.
He wrote, “My heart goes out to the families of those who lost their lives, the wounded, and those who will be traumatised by this incident for a long time. At this time last year, I was on this same train to Kaduna and we talked about how unsafe life is and the risks we were taking. We are the lucky ones.
“Again, a month ago I was on the Lagos /Ibadan train and it was the same spectre of death and attacks that plagued our minds. This is not to disregard the comfort and timeliness of the train ride and how desirable it is.
“A few weeks later we heard reports of the same train breaking down on the tracks due to lack of Diesel. Again, I was lucky that this didn’t happen to me. Point is, it could be anyone any day. On the road, at the airport, train station, nowhere is safe anymore. This is the extent of our brokenness.
“If anything is an indication of how broken we are today, then the shameful storming of the pitch and destruction of the MKO national stadium Abuja, is a clear indication. People are angry and bitter and are just looking for triggers. And boy! they are plenty.
“See the initial reactions to the quite clear tweet of the young doctor who died from gunshot wounds from the train and you will see that we’ve also lost our humanity.
“Nothing surprises and shocks us anymore. We’ve seen and heard it all. Ridiculousness has been enthroned by our leaders at every level.
“There is an urgent need to declare a state of emergency in this country. We are heading for the precipice and it doesn’t seem like we are interested in pulling the breaks. After now it’s a free fall.
“The government needs to do more than just promises to apprehend the perpetrators and truly save the lives of WE THE PEOPLE.”
On his part, Falana, while mourning the victims in a series of tweets, noted that “numerous Nigerian lives are needlessly wasted”.
He tweeted, “This place is in absolute shambles and it’s rather insane that everyone is constantly adjusting and acting like this is a country.
“No electricity, fuel scarce, no jobs, Naira all the way down, students are not in school, no public healthcare to treat ordinary man wey dey sick. You can’t travel by road because you may be killed or kidnapped. And now rail bombings have been added to the mix…
“Back-to-back bombings on the Kaduna-Abuja rail. Numerous Nigerian lives needlessly wasted. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING has been uttered about this. What the actual fxck.
“Do you know what these animals are busy doing? Announcing that they want to be president, Organizing political rallies, announcing that they want to start collecting toll gate money…
“Soldiers committed gruesome murders on innocent Nigerians on the night of October 20, 2020. The reports of the Judicial Panel set up by govt indicted the LCC. Despite being complicit in these gory crimes, LCC is brave enough to announce toll collection. What kind of madness?”
On her part, Funke Akindele-Bello described the terror attack as “heartbreaking”.
“This news is so heartbreaking. 😢 My heart goes out to families that lost loved ones in the Kaduna-Abuja train attack in Nigeria. May the souls of the departed Rest In Peace. AMEN This is so sad.”
Punch