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Arewa leaders pledge to curb insecurity in North

By Saxone Akhaine, Northern Bureau Chief
01 November 2016   |   4:12 am
Concerned about the high rate of terrorist attacks in the North, Arewa elders have pledged to provide a panacea in curbing the trend with a plan to organise a security summit.
PHOTO:AFP

PHOTO:AFP

Concerned about the high rate of terrorist attacks in the North, Arewa elders have pledged to provide a panacea in curbing the trend with a plan to organise a security summit.

Its deputy chairman, Alhaji Liman Kwande, who led a delegation of officials of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) to Governor Nasir el-Rufai in Kaduna yesterday, said all northerners were worried by the rise in security challenges in the region.

He said: “The group has seen the need to organise a security summit in Kaduna towards finding a lasting solution to security challenges in the region.”

“The recent attacks by suspected herdsmen on some communities in the Godogodo chiefdom, where lives were lost, property destroyed, and most importantly, trust among the communities severely damaged, are most condemnable. The rampant kidnapping of innocent people along Kaduna-Abuja expressway, among others, is of great concern to us.

“These threats to our peace, as a region and collectively as a people, must be addressed by both the government and socio-cultural groups like ACF. Therefore, to respond to these serious security challenges, the ACF thought it necessary to organise a Northern Security Summit, where stakeholders will be invited to openly discuss the various forms of insecurity and proffer workable solutions.”

The Arewa leaders also said that they were in Kaduna to seek the support of the state government towards successful hosting of the summit.

They urged him to also canvass support of other governors for a successful summit in the state.

El-Rufai has also urged the traditional rulers and heads of security agencies in the state to put an end to the killings and destruction of property by criminal gangs in Southern Kaduna.

At a security meeting with traditional rulers and other stakeholders, he warned that government would not allow people to take the laws into their hands and killing of innocent citizens.

He said the attacks in Godogodo and neighbourhood would no longer be condoned, while directing all divisional police officers and traditional rulers in the affected areas to fish out those involved in the killings within two weeks.

The governor added: “We have studied the reports of all committees and commissions of inquiry set up from 1980 to the time we came into power. What we discovered was that the negligence of previous government to implement recommendations encouraged the spate of insecurity to continue unchecked in the state. From that time to date, Kaduna has experienced 12 religious and ethnic conflicts.

“Those responsible for the crisis always use religious or ethnic differences. There is no way we will brand some people in Nigeria as settlers who don’t have the rights to live in any part of the country.

We are all Nigerians and God knows why He made all of us to be Nigerians. He is the one who created us to belong to different faiths or religions.”

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