Sola Ojo, Kaduna
As debates on the state of security in the country and in the North, in particular, continue to gain momentum, the Coalition of Northern Organisations has vowed not to allow the politicisation of insecurity in the region.
The Coalition in a press conference held at Arewa House, Kaduna, described those trying to politicise the development as ‘those who profit from an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity.’
Coalition spokesman Adamu Kabir Matazu, reading a press statement to newsmen, said the group believes that the security agents were doing their best to address the issue even with some of them paying a supreme price.
The Coalition, fielding questions from the newsmen, appealed to Northern elders to distance themselves from politics and to help the country with other solutions if they believe that the current approach is not good enough.
To the Coalition, ‘despite acknowledgement of temporary setbacks which our security forces will soon overcome, we shall never allow the politicisation of insecurity by those who profit from an atmosphere of chaos and insecurity.’
According to Matazu, ‘President Muhammadu Buhari was ushered in with a plethora of challenges principal of which was a steep and steady decline into full-blown insecurity.
‘However, it is on record that the government breasted the tape of the challenge and reclaimed the Nigerian territory previously under the full grips of Boko Haram terrorists and ISWAP collaborators in record time.
‘This feat was achieved by the enormous sacrifice of our gallant security agencies.
There is a salient need to applaud the daily sacrifices our men and women in uniform who against all odds have continued to decisively deal with issues of insecurity ranging from the remnant of Boko Haram/ISWAP, armed banditry, kidnapping and other forms of criminal enterprise.
‘We must dispassionately make an assessment of how far we have come as a nation from where we were, with a view to effectively harnessing the gains recorded and channelling same to achieving sustainable peace to guarantee overall national developing which will in turn force down the vicious forces of darkness exerting adversely on our dear nation.
‘We are not also oblivious of the fact that recently there are setbacks and isolated incident of Boko Haram attacks in Borno State and resurgence of banditry in Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara States which is being unnecessarily amplified by enemies of this nation with the active support of political hawks and crisis merchants.’
The Coalition also frowned at activities of some groups from the region, describing the conveners as “fear mongers”.
‘They came under different nomenclature such as Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) which they used to threatened Igbo residence in Northern Nigeria with an ultimatum to go back to the East or risk being killed.
‘It was also the same characters that launched an illegal security outfit with a day hired branded security vans which they christened SHEGE KA FASA and now to Coalition Against Killings in Northern Nigeria (CAKIN) using it to issue 2 weeks ultimatum and threatening to shut down the government and cause civil unrest to topple the democratically elected government. This is a joke taken too far.
‘We are using this medium to warn the organisers of the planned self-serving protest to discard the idea and go back to inform their sponsors that this evil machination has failed,’ the Coalition stated.