.Insist on state police as the way forward.
.Military promises sustained action against insecurity.
Worried by the recent upsurge in banditry, kidnappings, attacks, and killings by armed gangs across the country, the Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) yesterday accused the Federal Government and National Assembly of inability to find a solution to worsening criminality in the country.
Nigeria has witnessed a deteriorating security situation in recent times, occasioned by mass killings and abduction for ransom, with the recent one last week in Yelwata, Benue State, where over 200 hapless people were killed by bloodthirsty marauders.
In a communiqué issued after their meeting in Abuja, the forum lamented “the impunity of Fulani terrorists and their foreign collaborators wreaking genocidal attacks on indigenous communities across the nation, particularly in the Middle Belt region as evidenced in last week’s attack and killings in Benue State.”
The communique was signed by Oba Oladipo Olaitan (Afenifere), Dr. Bitrus Pogu (Middle Belt Forum), Senator John Azuta-Mbata (Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide) and Ambassador Godknows Igali (PANDEF), read: “The Federal Government and particularly the National Assembly must now accept their failure to provide the most fundamental security of life and property across the country whilst we witness the impunity of Fulani terrorists and their foreign collaborators wrecking genocidal attacks on indigenous communities across the nation and particularly in the Middle Belt region as happening currently in Benue State.
“For the umpteenth time, SMBLF calls on the President and the National Assembly to rise to their constitutional responsibility and duty to protect the life and property of Nigerians.”
While calling for the autonomy of the federating states, the forum suggested that each state should be allowed to establish its own independent Police Command with complimentary Divisions at the local government and community levels.
“The Nigerian federation should ensure enhanced autonomy of the federating states such that each state shall have its own independent Police Command with complimentary Divisions at the Local Government and community levels.
“That all police officers from the rank of a Chief Superintendent and below should be deployed within their state of origin,” the forum added.
It, however, faulted “the planned National Forest Guards as an additional Federal Security structure in the states and demanded that all security institutions or formations apart from the armed forces, police, civil defence, and the State Security Services should be part of the security architecture of the states, more so as lands and forests are the exclusive constitutional prerogative of the federating states.”
It said: “The SMBLF condemns the rituals of fire-brigade deployment of members of the armed forces to troubled areas spread across the country as ineffective and puts unnecessary pressures on the military from its constitutional roles of defending the nation’s territorial integrity.
“That pending full-fledged restructuring towards true federalism, governments of the states of the federation should take immediate measures to provide security for their people like the Amotekun South West Security Network with the full complement of weapons to face and deter insurgency and terrorism.
“The Federal Government should immediately liberate occupied communities by terrorist herdsmen and put an end to the shameful policy of creating IDP camps for indigenous peoples while their communities are taken over by invaders including foreign nationals.
“The President and the National Assembly should treat these issues with the utmost urgency it deserves such that Nigeria as a sovereign state shall be saved from the unenviable image of a banana republic and a prospective failed state.
“These proposals should be the minimum as the alternative to calling out the people to take their destinies in their hands and procure instruments of self-defence from wherever possible if this carnage persists.”
On emergency rule in Rivers State, the forum “reiterates that the state of emergency declared in Rivers State is illegal and of no utilitarian value in a democratic state and calls that it be immediately terminated, particularly because of the irreversible damaging effects it portends for our democratic journey and welfare of the people generally.
“SMBLF considers any appointment into state agencies and Local Governments or attempts to conduct elections by the military Administrator as illegal and that Rivers State be returned to normal democratic dispensation without further delay.”
“The National Assembly should uphold its oversight responsibilities with dignity and without compromise.
“Attempts by the Sole Administrator to impose his choices on the constitutional structures of the State must not be tolerated as such actions will be perceived as prejudicing amicable resolutions and prematurely ambushing democratic freedom of citizens of the State.”
On Rural Grazing Areas, aka RUGA, the forum said it rejects “unequivocally the re-introduction of RUGA or howsoever described to discriminatingly acquire land in states for private businesses as being now illegally proposed for Plateau State.”
“It is an invitation to occupation of indigenous people’s lands for nomadic Fulani herdsmen’s families in Nigeria and beyond”, it added.
Meanwhile, the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, yesterday reaffirmed the commitment of the Armed Forces of Nigeria to safeguarding the nation’s territorial integrity and tackling insecurity across the country.
General Musa, who gave the assurance during an expanded news conference in Abuja to mark the second anniversary of his appointment alongside other service chiefs, assured Nigerians that the military, in collaboration with other security agencies, remains resolute in its mission to restore peace and order in the country.
He highlighted the Armed Forces’ multipronged strategy in dealing with security threats, noting that both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches are being deployed to address insurgency and related challenges.
“As part of our non-kinetic measures, we are adopting a whole-of-society approach to combat insurgency and other forms of insecurity bedeviling our nation,” he stated.