INSECURITY: ACF chair, Audu Ogbeh, laments killings, says North must be saved

The Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Chief Audu Ogbeh, on Wednesday lamented the insecurity situation in the Northern part of the country and the daily killings in parts of the region.

Ogbeh, a former Minister of Agriculture, who noted that life had been so tough in the region, said there was an urgent need to save the north before it is lost.

The ACF chairman stated this at the first meeting of the group’s National Working Committee in Kaduna after they were elected at the ACF general meeting in March.

Ogbeh also explained that the ACF was not an ethnic, religious or political organisation as being mistaken by some Nigerians, adding, “It is none of these. We have over 300 tribes in the North. We cannot afford to be an ethnic organisation.”

According to the former minister the current killings in the region could only be equated with Nigeria’s bloody civil war which claimed millions of lives.

Ogbeh stated: “The 78 per cent of Nigerian land mass is in the North and we are faced with the problems of killings day and night which are greater than ever, except during the civil war.

“Our responsibility now is greater than before. We have not faced this challenge before: Killings day and night. At no time has life been so tough, except during the civil war.”

Continuing, Ogbeh warned that it was time to save the region or lose it.

“If we do not save the North now, we will lose the North”, he warned.

The group, in a communiqué after the meeting, called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to halt the carnage in the region and across the country, warning religious, ethnic and political leaders in the region against inflammatory utterances.

The group also called on northern state governments to pay attention to agriculture.

It stated: “Northern states should take advantage of the N75bn loan to farmers in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory under the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing in Agricultural Lending . Northern state governments will do well to take advantage of such programmes.

The ACF further said that the federal and state governments “must take urgent steps to arrest the deteriorating security situation in northern Nigeria which has led to insurgency, terrorism, banditry, ethnic and religious disturbances all over the North.”

On low school enrollment in the region, the ACF said: “State governors of the North should take urgent steps to enhance school enrolment and eradicate the rampant incidence of street begging which is very unhealthy for the overall development of the North.”