Northern Elders Forum (NEF) said it has observed with concern that in the last three months, some criminals have stepped up harassment and attacks on northerners moving about their legitimate businesses in southern Nigeria particularly in the South East.
In a statement by deputy director-general II, Salisu Mohammed, the NEF condemned these acts of provocation in totality against innocent citizens who chose to do their activities in that part of the country.
It called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and relevant security agencies to rise to the occasion and contain these criminals not to allow them to subvert and undermine national cohesion and togetherness.
The NEF made the call in reaction to a widely circulated video on social media where suspected militias of Eastern Security Network (ESN) killed hundreds of cattle that belong to northerners, saying the despicable and condemnable act was recorded and circulated across social media platforms.
Lamenting the brazen act by the elements bent on testing the elasticity of the country‘s diversity and unity, the NEF described such act as sabotage against efforts to strengthen the bond of Nigerians, while admonishing every part of the country to live in unity, peace and harmony in order to achieve the shared aspirations across the country.
“In the same vein, the attention of NEF has been drawn to a statement credited to the Forum by the media – that the North regrets voting for President Bola Tinubu. NEF wishes to distance itself from the statement as it did not emanate from the Forum as it is the opinion of the person in his personal capacity and not that of NEF,” it said.
It said the statement credited to NEF does not reflect the position of the Forum as it has never sat and assessed performance or non-performance of Tinubu administration.
“Similarly, NEF has never discussed, in any time, the politics of 2027 nor has it deliberated on who to support or not to support on such issues. The NEF considers it too early to be engaged in such distractions when NEF, like most Nigerians, are demanding good governance and dividends of democracy,” it added.
The NEF, said for now it prefers to, focus on advocating for what improves the northern region and Nigeria as a whole and charged leaders to always verify and authenticate information and treat issues within their specific contexts before making public pronouncement.
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