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By Sola Ojo, Kaduna
Following the gruesome murder of 43 rice farmers at Zabarmari in Jere Local Government of Borno State on Sunday, some concerned stakeholders from the Northern States were worried that there may not be an end in sight soon if the current crops of service chiefs do not do away with by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Specifically, they called on President Muhammadu Buhari to replace all the service chiefs without any further delay as emergency haulage to worsening security situation in the country, especially in the North.
Some stakeholders who headed different groups and coalitions had held an emergency meeting in Kaduna over the unfortunate incident after which a five-point communique signed by 11 attendees was released.
The communique was signed by Nastura Ashir Sahriff- Kano, Abdul Ahmed Isiaq- Kaduna, Gambo Ibrahim Gujungu – Kaduna, Jibril Tafida- Kaduna, Engr. Bello Bichi- Kano – Murtala Muhammad- Kaduna.
Other signatories to the communique are, Mansir Guruza, Arc. Mathias Joseph- Plateau, Engr Ibrahim Ndagi- Niger, Raphael Tokula- Benue, Aminu Saleh- Bauchi and Yerima Shettima.
The communique read in part, “we commiserate with the families of the farmers who were killed while trying to legitimately earn a living. Our heartfelt condolences go to the entire people and government of Borno State.
“We say enough is enough of these killings of innocent and unarmed civilians in Borno State, brought about by the seeming inability of the nation’s troops stationed in the State to help avoid this kind of massive casualty attacks and killings.
“We categorically call on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately sack the nation’s service chiefs for their inability to save the nation this tragically-embarrassing experience that has dire consequences to our international image.
“There is also the need for not just total overhaul of the security architecture in Borno but also the outdated intelligence-gathering method.
“It is our conviction that until a major paradigm shift in the security architecture is promptly applied by President Muhammadu Buhari, we will continue with this bad and alarming rounds of a tragic and embarrassing situation.
“The time to end this madness and now, the nation can’t afford to wait any longer”.
