The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has criticised what it described as attempts by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration to downplay worsening insecurity in the country, saying the government is ‘living in denial’ of the realities confronting Nigerians.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APM, Mr Abubakar Yusuf, stated this in Abuja on Saturday while reacting to the security situation in the country and comments made by the Minister of Defence, Gen Christopher Musa (retd), that security had improved under the Tinubu administration.
The Minister, while speaking in a television interview earlier on Tuesday, had stated that the government had ‘defeated terrorists.’
Musa also claimed that kidnapping had been decimated to a point where it had become more of a ‘social ill’ than a wider security concern.
‘Frankly speaking, we have defeated terrorists because now, like I said, the attacks are not as rampant and it is now kidnapping.
‘Like I said, kidnapping is a social ill where you now see wives kidnapping husbands and husbands kidnapping children’, he responded to a question.
The minister went on, ‘I can tell you there is improved security. Maybe if you noticed, you don’t hear so much of Boko Haram attacks, ISWAP attacks and all these things here and there, maybe one-off.
‘Now, I say, the trajectory is this: from criminality to kidnapping to terrorism, insurgency; once you are able to hit them, it goes back downwards.
‘So, we are now back into the stage of abductions and kidnappings because that is the easiest way for them to try and raise money.’
However, the APM noted that the Global Terrorism Index 2026 ranked Nigeria as the fourth most insecure country in the world, adding that the country had moved up two places from the sixth position recorded in the 2025 index.
The party berated the Minister for what it described as a ‘dangerous distortion of reality’, arguing that the situation on the ground and reports by international organisations contradicted claims that insecurity had improved.
‘It is deeply disappointing that a minister of the Federal Republic could appear on national television to make such claims at a time when millions of innocent Nigerians are being killed, kidnapped, displaced and terrorised in various parts of the country,’ Yusuf stated.
The spokesman said the government’s position demonstrated what he described as insensitivity to the plight of Nigerians facing killings, maiming, rape, abductions for ransom and captivity by bandits in dehumanising conditions.
According to him, the administration could not claim to feel the anguish of families whose lives had been permanently ruined by insecurity over the past three years.
He noted, ‘Only last week, 600 Nigerians, mostly women, children and the elderly, were abducted from Dekera, Gidan-Zana and Sabon Gida villages in Niger State and are still languishing in captivity.’
Yusuf further cited data by SBM Intelligence, which he said showed that kidnapping for ransom had become a highly monetised industry under the Tinubu administration, with more than N7.78bn reportedly paid as ransom between July 2025 and June 2026.
The APM accused the administration of either being ‘dangerously disconnected from reality’ or deliberately attempting to manipulate public perception by denying the worsening security situation.
It also criticised what it described as the administration’s dismissal of abductions as a ‘family affair’, saying such acts constituted terrorism and should be treated as a national security emergency.
‘If the security situation has truly improved as the administration claims, the APM challenges the President, the Minister of Defence and other senior officials of the Tinubu Presidency to travel by road without armed security details as other Nigerians must do,’ it said.
The party argued that insecurity was ‘festering’ under Tinubu because, according to it, the administration lacked the capacity to develop and implement an effective blueprint to tackle the challenge.
The APM urged Nigerians not to despair, but to remain committed to voting for its presidential candidate, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, in the 2027 election.
It boasted that Makinde was prepared with a blueprint to tackle insecurity and other challenges facing the country, adding that the tenure of the Tinubu administration would end on 29 May 2027.