From Femi Mustapha and Divine Macaulay, in Kaduna
The Arewa Consultative Forum has said that insecurity remains a potent existential threat to national security, unity, social cohesion, and nation-building, and the fight against it must involve everyone and everything.
The Forum said this in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, and made available to the media in Kaduna today, Tuesday.
While reacting to tragic loss of 13 lives, including women and children, following an attack on a bus carrying wedding guests and passing through Mangun, Mangu Local Government of Plateau State, the ACF called on the Federal Government to re-strategise the fight against the purveyors of terror, declare a total war against all savage scallywags in the country.
The Northern Socio Cultural group also called for an urgent implementation of an effective early-warning and early-response strategies, incorporate the participation of community members in anti-insecurity tactics, rejig security intelligence gathering, processing and the effective deployment of personnel to contain security threats and, most importantly, to investigate, identify, arrest and prosecute perpetrators and enablers of the attacks.
The Forum further called on community leaders, elders, clergy, traditional leaders, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders to intensify engagements to encourage community dialogue for conflict resolution, reconciliation, and cooperation.
ACF also calls on citizens to furnish security agencies with credible information on the activities of terror gangs.
The Forum stressed that no one should be deceived about the source of the problem; and the inconvenient truth about them must be faced if the country expects, as it should, remedies to the tragedies.
“Episodic waylaying and murder of innocent travellers in Plateau State, based on perceived ethno-religious identities, have been going on for a considerable while. ” The Group lamented
