COALITION of civil society groups on Wednesday in Lagos called for the immediate reorganization of topmost security apparatus in the country to reflect Federal Character principle, even as they equally demanded the removal of the newly appointed Director-General of Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), Ahmed Abubakar.
The groups which comprise Civil Society Coalition for Mandate Protection (CSCMP), South West Progressive Youth Movement (SWPYM) and South West Student’s Movement (SWSM) made these demands at a joint press briefing they addressed in reaction to lopsided appointments of top security personnel, spate of killings by Fulani herdsmen, insecurity, among others in the county.
Delivering the State of the Nation address, President of CSCMP, Comrade Taiwo Adeleye, while frowning at the lukewarm attitude of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government concerning the incessant killings by the herdsmen, accusing it of “cold complicity” in the saga, also called for the launch of a National Disarmament of all armed groups in the country.
Comrade Adeleye, while making the calls, said there was no doubt that the reason the killings had continued was because of the partisan posture of top security officials who he noted were from a particular section of the country.
“We say without fear of contradictions that the fact is that this lopsidedness cannot be isolated from the parochial posture of the top security operatives and the free reign of the Fulani herdsmen in Middle Belt and elsewhere and the onslaught they continuously unleash on our people,” he said.
Besides, Adeleye urged the Federal Government to order the arrest and prosecution of all those found to be responsible for the killings across the length and breadth of Nigeria.
The CSCMP chief, while lamenting the handling of the ongoing Fulani herdsmen’s onslaught in the country, said the Federal Government had demonstrated a clear case of cold complicity as indicated in the various statements credited to most of the top security chiefs, just as he recalled, in particular, the statement made by the Defence Minister, Dan Alli Mansour.
According to him, such statements, which he said had become a pattern, amounted to “top security officials taking positions that portray them as supporting a party in the raging conflict.”
On the agitation for the removal of Abubakar as NIA director-general, Adeleye described his appointment as “most appalling” coming after a Yoruba man, Ayodele Oke was removed from the same office.
“This is a clear case of assault on Federal Character. There is no justification for this appointment. There is no basis for it. There are people of Yoruba extraction that should have been appointed to that position. There is no single Igbo man in the entire security apparatus of Nigeria. Is this an attempt to punish the Igbo nation?
“There would have been no cause for alarm except the clear cases of subversion of the principles of fairness and the lack of capacity especially in the demonstrated case of DG NIA. In the first case, Mr Abubakar is not qualified for the position. He is married to a Moroccan which raises fundamental issues about loyalty to Nigeria as a country,” he said.
Speaking, Comrade Ajayi Taiwo of SWPYM lamented that the problems confronting the country under President Buhari arose from the centre that he said was not balanced in terms of key appointments, saying that the South West people had been unfairly treated in area of appointment and were not happy in spite of the support the president received from them in the 2015 poll.
Taiwo equally decried the spate of attacks and killings by Fulani herdsmen without much efforts on the part of the government to put a check, calling for an urgent action to address the menace.
In particular, he tasked the Federal Government to make available the Sambisa forest available for the herdsmen instead of looking for cattle colonies across the country, contending that after all herding was a private business that yielded profits for those engaging in it.
He also called on Yoruba Obas and the newly installed Aare Onakakanfo of Yorubaland, GanI Adams, to urgently hold a Yoruba parley, with a view to taking a common position on the herdsmen attacks which appeared to be spreading gradually to the South West zone.
In his remark, Ogunsona Peter, who is Public Relations Officer of SWSM, expressed the displeasure at the handling of the Fulani herdsmen attacks by the Federal Government, querying, “What can the police do to tackle those who carry AK47 riffles about?”
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“When the IPOB issue started, the FG deployed the Army, that is even against those who were not carrying arms. The South West youths, the South West students are fed up,” he lamented.
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