From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
The Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF) has tasked the 36 state governors in Nigeria to provide adequate security for their people, modelled on the South West Security Network, known as Amotekun, with the full complement of weapons to confront and deter insurgency and terrorism.
The forum also called for community policing as a means to curb the menace of insecurity in the country.
Rising from an emergency meeting, the group, which comprises political leaders and eminent personalities from the South West, South East, South South, and North Central geopolitical zones of the country, took a swipe at the Federal Government and the National Assembly over the current security situation in the country.
In a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting, a copy of which was made available to newsmen in Akure, the Ondo State capital, the forum chastised the Federal Government for its stance on state police and autonomy for the federating units, urging the government to ensure true federalism in the country.
The communiqué, signed by some leaders of the forum, including Oba Oladipo Olaitan, Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Dr Bitrus Pogu, Senator John Azuta-Mbata, and Amb. Godknows Igali, frowned at the killing of innocent people in some parts of the country and urged the Federal Government to ensure adequate protection of all citizens as enshrined in the 1999 Constitution, stressing that the protection of lives and property remains the primary responsibility of any government.
The communiqué reads: “The Federal Government of Nigeria and particularly the National Assembly must now accept their failure to provide the most fundamental security of life and property across the country, whilst we witness the impunity of Fulani terrorists and their foreign collaborators wreaking genocidal attacks on indigenous communities across the nation and particularly in the Middle Belt region, as is happening currently in Benue State.
“For the umpteenth time, SMBLF calls on the President and the National Assembly to rise to their constitutional responsibility and duty to protect the life and property of Nigerians.
“We propose that the Nigerian federation should ensure enhanced autonomy of the federating states such that each state shall have its own independent police command with complementary divisions at the local government and community levels.
“That all police officers from the rank of Chief Superintendent of Police and below should be deployed within their state of origin. We also condemn the planned National Forest Guards as an additional federal security structure in the states and demand that all security institutions or formations, apart from the armed forces, Nigeria Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, and the Department of State Services, should be part of the security architecture of the states, more so as land and forests are exclusive constitutional prerogatives of the federating states.
“We condemn the ritual of fire-brigade deployment of members of the armed forces to troubled areas spread across the country as ineffective and putting unnecessary pressure on the military from its constitutional role of defending the nation’s territorial integrity.
“That, pending full-fledged restructuring towards true federalism, governments of the states of the federation should take immediate measures to provide security for their people in the nature of the Amotekun South West Security Network with the full complement of weapons to face and deter insurgency and terrorism.
“That these security measures are considered more effective than the current unitary architecture in a federation, which renders governors as chief security officers of their states only in name.
“That states with a prevailing culture of animal husbandry and with the assistance of the Federal Government should encourage ranching within their territories,” the communiqué added.
Present at the meeting were the former Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele, Chief Nnia Nwodo, former President-General, Ohanaeze, Hon Bassey Ekefre, Deputy National Chairman, PANDEF, Prince Okey Nwadinobi, Chief Sola Ebiseni, Mr Luka Binniyat, and Emeka Sibeudu, among others.