Former vice president Atiku Abubakar has lashed out at President Bola Tinubu for visiting Plateau State for the burial of the All Progressives Congress chairman’s mother but failing to visit the state when citizens were killed by terrorists.

Mr Abubakar said in a statement on Saturday that it was “unfortunate” that the president did not deem it fit to visit communities attacked by bandits and suspected herdsmen, especially in Plateau State.

“With large swathes of the country still under siege from unrelenting insecurity and thousands of innocent lives lost, it is deeply unfortunate that President Bola Tinubu has not, for once, found it worthy to visit any of the affected states to commiserate with the grieving citizens,” Mr Abubakar said in a statement on Saturday.

He added, “Today, however, the president suddenly remembered Plateau State, one of the most terrorised parts of the North-Central, not to share in the people’s pain, but to attend a social event under the auspices of his party’s national chairman.”

For Mr Abubakar, Mr Tinubu’s visit to Plateau for the funeral of the APC chairman’s mother “is a sad reflection of priorities and a glaring mockery of leadership that, while families in Plateau continue to bury their loved ones, President Tinubu chose to grace a political funeral rather than stand with the people in their darkest hour.”

The former vice president also lashed out at the ruling APC for failing to console with communities ravaged by bandit attacks, saying the event “is a heartless exhibition of disregard for empathy, compassion, and the dignity of human life.”

Recalling Mr Tinubu’s visit to Benue State when over 200 people were massacred in an overnight raid by gunmen, Mr Abubakar called him a “president who would rather feast than feel—a leader who finds pleasure where the people find pain.”

“Even when Tinubu made a symbolic visit to Benue State in June, he never bothered to set foot in Yelewata, the epicentre of the massacre. Instead, he ended his trip comfortably in Makurdi, turning his back on the people whose tears and blood still stain the soil,” Mr Abubakar said.

Mr Abubakar’s criticism comes against the backdrop of Mr Tinubu’s visit to Jos, the Plateau State capital, to attend the funeral prayers in honour of Nana Lydia Yilwatda Goshwe, mother of the APC national chairman, Nantewe Yilwatda Goshwe.