The Chairman Northern States Governor?s Forum (NSGF) and Governor of Niger state Babangida Aliyu on Sunday described the statement credited to Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) claiming Northern Governors rejected their recommendations on how to end Boko Haram insurgency as embarrassing.
The Chairman of the NSGF in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Israel Ebije insisted Northern Governors made wide consultations based on variant experiences especially in flash point areas towards charting a security roadmap for the region on how to end insurgency.
?We consulted with socio-political groups towards ending Boko Haram insurgency and other security malaise in the North. We inaugurated a committee, extended the period of that committee to accommodate all the views. Ibrahim Coomassie, chairman of ACF is aware of our effort.?
?Let me therefore intimate that we forwarded our recommendation to the Federal Government as part of our effort towards ending insurgency in the North. I was indeed shocked to read in one of the dailies that ACF claim we rejected their recommendation when in actual sense we were the ones begging for contributions?
The forum chairman said the security committee was given 90 days to submit its report to the NSGF, its terms of reference include; to liaise with stakeholders in the Northern States, particularly the affected states, and get to the root of the security challenges and proffer solutions.
He also added that the committee was mandated to dialogue with any identified groups with a view to negotiating the way out of the menace and liaise with the federal government and deliberate on the best approach in resolving the security challenges.
The governor hoped the ACF has nothing to do with the publication especially as it is a socio-cultural forum expected to know the negative implication peddling such position adding that if it is indeed their view, then its unfortunate as he said it is capable of exacerbating the problem on ground.
He insisted that unprovoked allegations against the NSGF after all it has done fighting insurgency in the North is unfair. He said what is expected of anybody or group is words of encouragement, contribution, commendation not accusations.
He urged ACF to shun utterances that might give impression they are gravitating towards politicizing the Boko Haram malaise adding that already people are linking the next presidential election to insecurity in the North, regardless of the direction it takes.
Aliyu therefore insisted that for the avoidance of doubts, the NSGF was indeed responsible for the security roadmap tailored at putting an end to insurgency in the North.
He maintained that ending insurgency should be paramount and not blame game or unnecessary arguments over who worked more in ending the security problem in the region.
