Don’t play politics with Offa calamity, Lai Mohammed warns

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has admonished some political actors in Kwara State for attempting to trivialize the April 5, 2018, robbery attack in Offa that left 33 people dead.

He said claims of compensating the victims in monetary terms cannot equate the lives lost in the incident. He made the remarks in Offa, Kwara State, on Saturday at the 2018 Ijakadi Festival, a statement by his ministry said. Alhaji Mohammed, who described the efforts to trivialize the dastardly act as indecent, called on the people to condemn any attempt to play politics with human lives.

According to him, in recent days, there have been attempts by some political desperadoes to trivialize the calamity that befell Offa when armed robbers attacked banks and the police station, among others.

He pointed out that the desperadoes were quoted as saying that when they visited Offa to commiserate with the people, they donated N10 million even when what was stolen from the banks’ vault was N7 million.

“Now, let us ask them: How many of those who were killed in that attack have they also been able to bring back? How can any sane person equate human life with money? No amount of money is worth any human life. And no one should play politics with human life. All people of conscience must condemn this glib comment by a desperate political warlord,” he said. Alhaji Mohammed commended the resilience of the people of Offa for organizing such an elaborate festival despite the calamity that befell their community.

In his remarks, the Olofa of Offa, Oba Mufutau Gbadamosi Esuwoye II, said the Ijakadi Festival is aimed at sustaining the cultural heritage of the people and fostering cohesion in Offa community and its environs.