The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has condemned the rise in ritual killings and deadly attacks against on-duty policemen and ethnic minorities, with the latest incidents reported in Enugu, Imo, Abia, Zamfara and Ogun States.

While describing ritual killings, hate crimes and killing of law enforcement officers as aberrations, the President urged the courts to apply the strictest punishments to perpetrators.

The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday titled ‘President Buhari condemns violent attacks against policemen, ethnic minorities in states.’

In expressing the sympathy of the nation to families of all the victims, Buhari urged law enforcement agencies, state governments, local authorities, community and religious leaders to take all lawful actions to prevent recurrences.

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 “I condemn these dastardly acts of violence and pray for the souls of the departed,” the President was quoted as saying just as he added that the courts of the land must apply “the strictest of punishment under our laws to the perpetrators of these horrific crimes.”

He added that killings in the name of rituals, political agitation and tribal hatred are not in keeping with the tenets of the prominent religions in Nigeria and of the civilised and enlightened cultures the country claim to be, adding that “no person has the right to take the law in his or her own hands.”

The President also reemphasised the need for all Nigerians to be their brother’s keepers and should see an attack—verbal or physical—on anyone as an attack on the very essence that keeps the nation.