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From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Pan-Arewa social political organisation, Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), has carpeted President Muhammadu Buhari over the increasing cases of killings and kidnappings in the country, accusing him of dishing out empty threats to bandits.
The group’s Spokesperson, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, who addressed newsmen yesterday in Abuja, claimed that between December 2020 and April 2021 over 970 students were kidnapped.
He appealed to the international community not to abandon Nigeria, but to help the country put an end to the hiccups.
“It is no exaggeration to say that the people of the North have never experienced this level of exposure to criminals who attack, kill, maim, rape, kidnap, burn villages, target educational assets and kidnap students at will while President Buhari issues threats and promises that have no effect.
“Between December 2020 and April 2021 alone, over 970 students were abducted from their schools in the northern part of Nigeria with a substantial number still in captivity and some violently executed, ” he said.
Suleiman maintained that the activities of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) would further open old wounds inflicted on Nigerians in the 60s with the claim that group take delight in drumming beats of war.
He urged the United Kingdom and the United States, to stop protecting IPOB members.
“In the midst of this national calamity, there have been renewed attempts to reopen the old wounds inflicted on Nigeria by certain sections of the country shortly after independence.
“This attempt, spearheaded by the Indigenous People of Biafra on behalf of the entire Igbo at home and in the Diaspora, is now taking a more ominous and repulsive form and context with open declaration of violence and anarchy against other parts of Nigeria and the Nigerian State.
“They have continued to insult, beat the drums of war, threaten the peace and actually carry out the threats by attacking the nation’s security facilities, killing security personnel and inciting violence on particularly northerners living as minorities in the South East and some other southern state.
“Our friends and the international community, the UK especially, to understand that our bilateral friendship is guided by the principles of sovereignty, promotion of peace and the standards that guides legitimate interference.
“Hence, their intervention, exclamations and actions should not be drawn to discountenance the effort of the Nigerian state to protect citizens from violence and terror.
“Warn our friends, particularly in Europe and the entire international community/organisations to weigh the impact and consequence of these campaigns coming from their backyard.
“We finally wish to renew our request for the global community’s intervention in persuading Nigerian authorities and the United Nations to facilitate the final actualization of the Biafran dream by the Igbo.
“The world should keep in mind that by far, a destabilized Nigeria will certainly threaten the peace and security of the entire sub-Saharan Africa,” he concluded.
