Okwe Obi, Abuja
Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and Development (CONEPD) has accused the military of abandoning the North East region, which is occupied by Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorists for #EndSARS protesters, lamenting that the vacuum led to the killing of innocent and vulnerable civilians.
National chairman of CONEPD, Zana Goni, in a statement, yesterday stressed that pro-active intelligence should have revealed this lapses to the military high command and noted that the service chiefs did not calculate well.
Goni, consequently, called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to show the service chiefs the way out, having exhausted all applicable ideas, which they insisted were now obsolete.
He said: “Though the protests in parts of the country may have been suspended, with deaths and destruction of both private and public property in the trail, we wish to state that the North East also suffered similar fate during the period of the demonstrations.
“We had thought that the high command of the military would, at least, be proactive enough to know that these insurgents take advantage of loopholes, to perpetrate their wicked acts.
“We are disappointed that these gaps were not covered, thereby giving the terrorists a free reign in many communities, a situation that culminated in many unreported deaths and destruction of property.
“Our men, women and children are tired of these needless attacks on communities, in the face of huge budgetary expenditure on the defence and security sub-sector of the nation.
“We are concerned that our dear President, who is so passionate about leaving an enviable legacy of a prosperous nation in all respect, has remained adamant, as far as the military heads are concerned.”