Pan-Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to consider the insecurity situation in the country as warlike and should, therefore, recall retired intelligent officers to complement the efforts of existing security organs to halt the war.
The group made the call in a release by its spokesperson, Comrade Jare Ajayi, on the heels of sad and shocking occurrences regarding the situation in the land, maintaining that there was no more time to be wasted in being more honest, decisive and comprehensive in confronting the situation if the country was to be prevented from going under.
Besides the bomb blast that happened in Maiduguri on the day President Buhari visited that city on Thursday, the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS), also revealed in a letter to its border posts dated December 23, 2021, that terrorists from Mali planned to attack Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory.
Also, there are cases involving kidnapping, killing, arson and burning of vehicles conveying people from one place to another as happened recently on Kaduna highway and in Borno and Katsina states, among others.
Afenifere said Buhari must come out openly to give an ultimatum of two weeks to those carrying arms illegally to lay down their arms, adding that the president must within the period, encourage retired intelligent officers to report at the military formations nearest to them with a view to reintegrating them back into the system.
According to the pan-Yoruba socio-political group, needed weapons and incentives must be provided, saying that the intelligence units within the security organs must be rejigged to weed out the fifth columnists in the Army.
“Needed weapons and incentives must be provided just as the intelligence units within the security organs be rejigged to weed out the fifth columnists in the army.
Overtures are made to certain powers that have control over our neighbouring countries from where terrorists infiltrate our country.
“Among such superpowers that need to be consulted are France, United Kingdom, China, Russia, Germany, Israel and the United States of America. The rationale behind this is to seek for direct assistance in terms of logistics as well as for some of them, particularly France, to work on French-speaking neighbouring countries to help curtail insurgents using their territories to infiltrate Nigeria,” Afenifere said.
The group quickly added that the Federal Government must, beyond seeking foreign help, be ready to be more genuinely committed to removing insurgency and related criminality from our land.
“This, it can do successfully, by stopping to treat bandits and terrorists with kid gloves, by genuinely providing needed equipment to the Army and other security agencies, by truly engaging the youths into ventures that would earn them a livelihood, by no longer treating some bandits and terrorists as sacred cows and by liberalizing the economy in such a way that the cost of commodities and services in the country would come down considerably.
“Above all, states and local governments that are willing should be allowed to have their own policing system up to the level of investigation and prosecution without let or hindrance,” Ajayi said.
Speaking further, Afenifere, while noting that it was disheartening that terrorists had the temerity to launch attacks near Maiduguri on Thursday, December 23, 2021, around the time the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, was visiting Maiduguri and parts of Borno State, said the vow made by the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant General Ibrahim Attahiru, last week Thursday that the Nigerian Army was committed to ending the (Boko Haram) war and other security challenges such as banditry and kidnapping and other crimes bedevilling the country, was not new.
“To Afenifere, it was not the first time such declaration would be made either by President Buhari or the security chiefs. But rather than the insecurity being checkmated, the situation has been going from bad to worse.
“It is high time President Buhari heeded the pieces of advice being given from various quarters, including the ones by the Eminent Nigerians led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo and the one that emanated from the Inclusive Security Dialogue Retreat which held in Abuja a few weeks ago and attended by the same Chief Obasanjo, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar, Sultan of Sokoto; Reverend Samson Supo Ayokunle, CAN President; Chief Edwin Clark and many other leaders from ethnic nationalities.
“They had called on the president to urgently convey a national conciliatory conference to address the underlying issues of our challenges that successive governments have ignored,” Afenifere stated.
The pan-Yoruba socio-political group posited that if the steps suggested above were taken, the vow made by COAS, Attahiru would be easy to fulfil.
