Criminal activities, ranging from banditry, kidnapping to armed robbery, had escalated in the north west, resulting in the killing of hundreds of people.
This is even as Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal asked the Federal Government to recruit special forces to fight bandits in their enclaves in the forest.
Recruit special forces — Tambuwal
He also disclosed plans to deboard all schools in the state until the security situation was resolved.
Rising from a one-day stakeholders meeting in Sokoto yesterday, the coalition in a communique issued at the end of the meeting, said it had mobilised youths in states in north west to ground activities in the zone until government dealt with the problem of banditry and other violent crimes.Coordinator of CNG in the state, Isah Jabbi Usman, also blamed the activities of the outlawed volunteer vigilantes groups, known as Yan Sakai for the escalation of violence in most parts of the north western states.
He lamented the escalating insecurity, particularly in Sokoto and called for immediate action to address the situations once and for all.
The group faulted both the federal and state governments for not acting promptly to tame the situation at its initial stage.
‘’We hereby place the authorities on notice that if the killings and abductions are not significantly or totally controlled within the next three months, mass action would be called that will not prelude occupying all towns in all the frontline states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja,’’ Usman said.Similarly, the North-Western Governor’s Forum challenged stakeholders in the zone to show commitment to the efforts to wipe out banditry in the north west.
Chairman of the Forum, Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State, who threw the challenge when he led a delegation of the Forum on a condolence visit to Senator Aliyu Wamakko (APC-Sokoto) in Abuja yesterday over the burning of over 40 persons in a bus by bandits in Sokoto last week said: “We were in Sokoto State earlier to sympathise with the government and immediate families of those who were brutally killed in the name of banditry.
“The issue of banditry in north western part of the country is not beyond us. We know the problem and the solutions are something we as a people are capable of providing.
“This will be, provided that all of us take responsibility and stop the blame game. Banditry, especially our own in the north western part of the country, can easily be dealt with, if all hands are put on deck.
“This is because it has no religious coloration, no ethnic coloration, it is not ideological. It is simply pure criminality.’’
While acknowledging that the Nigerian Police had limitations in fighting insecurity, Masari said security agencies required technologies to effectively tackle the challenge.
“We in the north western governor’s forum together with the governors of Plateau, Nasarawa and Niger are working with the Federal Government to come up with strategies and solutions,’’ he said.