A Kebbi State delegation dispatched by Governor Nasir Idris has met with Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Christopher Musa, pleading with him to flush out new terror group Lukarawas from the state.
His team, led by immediate past governor and Minister of Budget and Economic Planning Atiku Bagudu, has Sen. Bala Ibn Na’Allah, All Progressives Congress (APC) National Organising Secretary, Alhaji Suleiman Argungu, as well as a former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney-General of the state, Alhaji Nasiru Junju as members.
Chief Press Secretary to governor Ahmed Idris, who made the visit to the CDS known, said in a statement that the CDS promised the delegation that military would take necessary action.
On Wednesday, the Defence Headquarters announced to Nigerians the presence of the Lukarawas group in Sokoto and Kebbi states, having moved from Niger and the Sahel.
On Friday, the terror group struck in Mera, a community in Augie Local Government Area of the Kebbi State killing 15 people.
Also, yesterday, the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) urged the Federal Government and the security agencies to act fast and rid Sokoto and Kebbi states of the emerging terrorist group.
In a statement yesterday, Idris said: “The minister informed the CDS that the essence of their visit was to intimate (him) on the need for immediate action to bring an end to the current security challenge facing not only Kebbi but the country at large.
“The delegation thanked the military as well as other security agencies for supporting the state in addressing the security challenges bedeviling the state.”
Idris quoted Gen. Musa as assuring the delegation of the readiness of the military to intervene with a view to arresting the perpetrators and bringing them to book.
“Gen. Musa also reiterated the commitment of the military to joining hands with other security agencies in safeguarding the state,” Idris quoted the CDS as saying.
During an operational tour to Sokoto State, the acting Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Olufemi Oluyede, told residents of Gongono Masallachi that their community’s support was crucial to the protection of Nigeria’s territory.
The acting COAS said: “Nigeria belongs to all of us; the soldiers are your brothers, friends, and fellow Nigerians. Support us, and inform us when there are any challenges.
“I want to assure you that all the soldiers here are for you. Please notify them of any security threats or unusual activity.
“We know there will always be challenges, but the question is how we respond to them.”
The acting army chief said one of the reasons of his visit was to assess the readiness of troops and to encourage them to rise to the challenges they face.
He said: “I urge you to support us, because without your cooperation, we cannot succeed, and Nigeria itself cannot be secured.
“We need Nigeria to be secured so that we can all share in its prosperity.”
The acting COAS had a stopover at the Illela border community, where he met with security officers and inspected the new military barracks under construction.
The ACF urged the government not to treat the group with kid gloves.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Prof. Tukur Mohammed Baba, the regional body said: “The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is most deeply concerned about the emergence of a new armed terror group, Lakurawa, in Northwest states of Kebbi and Sokoto, as confirmed by local authorities as well as the DHQ.
“The group has been reported to be terrorising communities, sacking national security agents and local vigilance outfits, forcing compliance to its brand of justice system.
“Additionally, although membership of the group is reported to be of foreign origin (speaking French and a dialect of Arabic languages), it is said to engage in membership recruitment, using monetary incentives and/or force.
“Already, within the last 48 hours, the group has attacked communities in Argungu Local Government Area, killing 15 persons. This development is simply one too many.
“ACF considers the emergence of this group as very dangerous and alarming as it indicates an escalation in the very devastating state of insecurity in the Northwest, now the Nigeria’s epicentre of terrorism.
“Coming amid signs of successes from the renewed vigour by the Nigerian military to decapitate banditry in this zone, the new development raises serious concerns, as further grave challenge to Nigeria’s national security interests. Thus, the group should not be towed with in any form and must be processed and treated with all the seriousness.
“Lukarawas, at this incipient stage of its emergence, must not be tolerated or allowed to entrenched itself to be embedded in our communities through benign neglect and/or kid-glove treatment, as was the case with Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder clashes and banditry in the Northeast, Northcentral and Northwest areas, respectively.
“This is the moment for our security agencies to move fast, and urgently too, to subjugate and decapitate the Lukarawas terror gangs with all the human and material arsenals at their disposal, without hesitation.”
“For the umpteenth time, ACF urges an immediate, comprehensive and thorough re-appraisal of Nigeria’s national security strategies and tactics, such as to leave no one in doubt about the national resolve to deal decisively with any and all threats to Nigeria’s peace and stability as may be contemplated by terror groups of whatever forms or descriptions.
“ACF believes that the development in question brings into sharp focus a need for the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MJTF) arrangement with neighbours to be reinvigorated and reinforced. Niger Republic must be persuaded to return to participate in the endeavour.
“The visit to Niger Republic earlier in the year by Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Christopher Musa, should be utilised as a fulcrum for renewed the cross-border international efforts to deal with terrorists.
“The Federal Government, state and local authorities should also leverage the close complex historic socio-cultural, economic and political ties with Nigeria’s neighbours with which to confront the mutual existential security threats that terror groups pose to all.
“ACF further calls for: intensification of intelligence gathering, processing, storage, retrieval, deployment and utilisation; attention to be paid to the possible involvement of local informants in communities and such individuals, whoever they are without regards to their station in society, must unequivocally be made to know the dire consequences of any involvement with terror groups in any form whatsoever; greater and more effective and efficient inter-agency collaboration among national security agencies under the coordination of the Office of the National Security Advisor (ONSA).”
ACF also called for the “involvement of local, traditional, and religious leaders, persons of influence, hunters, vigilance outfits and other community influentials to form vanguards of support for security operations; training of citizens of border and other communities in early warning and early response strategies to complement the efforts of national security agencies; re-establishment of security and defence joint cooperation with neighbouring countries (and especially Niger Republic in this instant); communities and citizens should be mobilised to cooperate with and support the national security agencies and field operators with encouragement and prayers; and, finally, Investigate and take decisive diplomatic action against any foreign powers for any possible support or any involvement, even if surreptitious or tangentially so, in anti-Nigeria threats.”