The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has kicked against Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s threat to bring in foreign mercenaries if the Federal Government fails to address the insecurity in the country.
El-Rufai’s outburst followed increasing attacks by terrorists in Kaduna including last Monday’s bomb attack on the Abuja- Kaduna rail line which led to the death of nine people with about 21 abducted.
However, in a statement titled: “A Time to Further Reflect” the ACF through its Secretary-General, Murtala Aliyu, on Sunday stated that the security of the country rests on the federal government and calls for cursory, calm, implementable and lasting solution.
According to the statement, the invitation of foreign forces or mercenaries “to fight our course must be treated with utmost caution.”
The statement read, “The Arewa Consultative Forum appreciates the frustration of leaders at the sub-national level, however, we call on the governments, governors and citizens alike, to avoid any fire brigade approach on any pressing issue that is bedevilling the country.
“The holistic submission on the failure of governance, as attested by our governors, is an indication that all is not well in the nooks and corners of the territory called Nigeria. We have no other territory than this, so also a country but Nigeria. The survival of the country, therefore, must be paramount and lives and property of citizens, law and order and freedom of expression must be protected.”
On the proposition to escort trains from Abuja to Kaduna, Ibadan to Lagos or the Itakpe routes, by the Nigerian Airforce, the Forum urged security agencies to redesign their operations and instead, deploy their machinery and manpower in launching attacks on the bandits and terrorist enclaves.
“Dedicating such operations to only railway lines shall make air and road users more vulnerable to such attacks. The new dimension of the terror attacks, in the country, both on humans and infrastructure calls for total war. The authorities may look at the possibility of utilising volunteers, such as the ex-servicemen and women, the civilian task forces, hunters and whatever is available to make every inch of Nigeria habitable and peaceful,” the group said.
