Northern Elders have called on the Nigerian military to wipe out the new terror group in Kebbi and Sokoto before it gets out of hand.
The elders, under the umbrella of the apex northern sociocultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), reported that members of the new terror group, called Lakurawa, are now sacking people from their houses and driving out security agents and vigilantes on Nigerian territory.
The elders expressed deep concern about the emergence of a new armed terror group in the Northwest states of Kebbi and Sokoto, as confirmed by local authorities as well as Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters.
According to the national publicity secretary of the ACF, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, the new group is reported to be terrorising communities, sacking the country’s security agents and local vigilante outfits, and forcing compliance to its brand of the justice system.
“Additionally, although membership of the group is reported of foreign origin (speaking French and a dialect of Arabic languages), it is said to engage in membership recruitment, using monetary incentives and force. Already, within the last 48 hours, the group has attacked communities in Argungu Local Government Area, killing 15 persons. This development is simply one too many.”
ACF described the emergence of this group as very dangerous and alarming as it indicates an escalation in the very devastating state of insecurity in the Northwest, now Nigeria’s epicentre of terrorism.
It stated that coming amid renewed vigour by the Nigerian military to decapitate banditry in this zone, the new development raises serious concerns as a further grave challenge to Nigeria’s national security interests.
“Thus, the group should not be toyed with in any form and must be processed and treated with all seriousness. Lakurawa, at this incipient stage of its emergence, must not be tolerated or allowed to entrench itself in our communities through benign neglect and kid-glove treatment as was the case with Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder clashes and banditry in the Northeast, North central and Northwest areas, respectively”.
ACF urged the security agencies to move fast, and urgently too, to subjugate and decapitate the Lakurawa terror gangs with all the human and material arsenal at their disposal, without hesitation.
“For the umpteenth time, ACF urges an immediate, comprehensive and thorough re-appraisal of Nigeria’s National Security strategies and tactics such as to leave no one in doubt about the national resolve to deal decisively with any threats to Nigeria’s peace and stability as may be contemplated by terror groups of whatever forms or descriptions.
“ACF believes that the development in question brings into sharp focus a need for the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MJTF) arrangement with neighbours to be reinvigorated and reinforced. The Niger Republic must be persuaded to return to participate in the endeavour.
“The visit to the Niger Republic earlier in the year by Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, should be utilised as a fulcrum for renewed cross-border international efforts to deal with terrorists.”
The Northern elders further urged the federal, state and local authorities to leverage on the close complex historic socio-cultural, economic and political ties with Nigeria’s neighbours in confronting the mutual existential security threats that terror groups pose to all.
ACF further called for intensification of intelligence gathering with the possible involvement of local informants in communities towards containing insurgents. Villagers must unequivocally be made to know the dire consequences of any involvement with terror groups in any form whatsoever.
They also advocated more effective and efficient inter-agency collaboration among national security agencies under the coordination of the Office of the National Security Advisor, and the involvement of local traditional and religious leaders, persons of influence, hunters, vigilante outfits and other community members to form vanguards of support for security operations.
Credit: Leadership