Rising from its Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting on Tuesday, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) said it is tired of advising President Muhammadu Buhari on security matters because the government appears not to be serious in taking proactive measures to end the ugly situation.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the meeting, the National Publicity Secretary of ACF, Emmanuel Yawe, lamented that the Federal Government had failed to heed its advice on how to tackle insecurity in the country, thereby leaving citizens at the mercy of bandits.
Yawe charged the nation’s leaders to tell Nigerians what would happen if their children were kidnapped too.
He, however, added that massive employment of youths by governments at all levels would reduce crime rate and check rising insecurity across the country.
“Today’s (Tuesday) meeting is very crucial to the operations of ACF because it is the first meeting of the newly-constituted BOT. We discussed security, and we are worried because Nigerians are not secure. We are not happy about insecurity in the country. We are looking at the immediate and long term ways of improving security.
“It has been in the news that over 300 students were kidnapped and taken away in Katsina, and the government is saying they are negotiating with the kidnappers to free the students. These are some of the things that are very distressful and disturbing to all members of ACF,” he said.
The ACF spokesperson disclosed that the forum had called on government many times and kept on saying that they were not going to allow banditry to take over the country.
“Bandits went to the school, packed students on bikes and took them to the forest. Whatever is happening to them in the forest, nobody knows. The situation is very distressful. Our leaders should tell us what would happen if their children were among those kidnapped.
“ACF complained about this insecurity in its October meeting, and nothing was done. We are in December with the same complaint, and nothing is being done,” he said.
