The pan-Northern socio-politicalorganisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, has cautioned the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari(retd.)-led Federal Government against the plan by the Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai; and other North-West governors to hire foreign mercenaries to help fight the insurgency in the North.
In the wake of the terror attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train which left eight passengers dead and scores of others unaccounted for, El-Rufai had said that he and his colleagues from the North West would not mind hiring foreign mercenaries if the Federal Government failed to secure the country.
However, in a statement titled, ‘Time to further reflect,’ by the ACF’s Secretary General, Murtala Aliyu, in Kaduna on Sunday, the forum kicked against such plan.
The ACF argued that rather, the authorities should consider the possibility of utilising “volunteers, such as the ex-servicemen and women, the civilian task forces, hunters and whatever is available to make every inch of Nigeria habitable and peaceful.”
According the ACF, the governments, governors and citizens must avoid any fire brigade approach on any pressing issue that is bedevilling the country.
The Northern group also kicked against the planned use of the Nigerian Air Force to escort train across the country, noting also that security agencies should redesign their modus of operandi to face the bandits headlong, using the available machinery and manpower.
The statement read, “The survival of the country must be paramount and lives and property of citizens, law and order and freedom of expression must be protected.
“The Arewa Consultative Forum appreciates the frustration of leaders at sub-national level; however we call on the governments, governors and citizens alike, to avoid any fire brigade approach on any pressing issue that is bedevilling the country.
“The security of the country rests on the central government and calls for cursory, calm, implementable and lasting solution. It emphasised that invitation of foreign forces or mercenaries to fight our course must be treated with utmost caution.
“On the proposition to escort trains from Abuja to Kaduna, Ibadan to Lagos or the Itakpe routes, by the Nigerian Airforce, the Forum calls on the security agency to redesign their operations and instead deploy their machinery and manpower in launching attacks on the bandits and terrorists enclaves.
“Dedicating such operations to only railway lines, shall make air and road users more vulnerable to such attacks. The new dimension of the terror attacks, in the country, both on human and infrastructure calls for total war.
“The authorities may look at the possibility of utilising volunteers, such as the ex-servicemen and women, the civilian task forces, hunters and whatever is available to make every inch of Nigeria habitable and peaceful.”
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