ACF Seeks Urgent FG, Security Response To Bomb Explosions

The apex northern socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu , and all Nigerians to rise up to stop terrorists renewed attacks, warning that the insurgents will cripple the country if the government and the people fail to rise against them.

Speaking with LEADERSHIP while reacting to bomb explosions in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital on Monday, ACF National Publicity Secretary, Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, condemned the attack in strongest term.

The forum maintained that the federal government should not treat the attack with kid gloves.

According to ACF, “The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is very shocked at the development, but we also look at it as a continuation of the series of attacks, including the attacks of military posts in Borno State, and we condemn in the strongest terms the loss of lives and the escalation in the process, and we call on the federal government not to take this one with its glove. We have to do all we can because it is a national security threat. We will be addressing the press on that issue probably tomorrow.”

ACF warned, “All of us have to put our hands, we have to take this threat very, very seriously because it is an existential threat to this country. We can’t allow ourselves to be encircled by insurgents who have no idea of the complexity or they don’t care, they don’t pay much regard for the complexity of the country. It is very sad and everyone has to rise up.

“This job is not for the military alone, it is not for the political class alone, it is for everyone, not just for the people of Borno State. You know, similar thing has been happening with the attack on military posts in Plateau State. We cannot allow that to happen. It is going to cripple the country,” the forum stated.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued by ACF national publicity secretary, Prof. T. A. Muhammad-Baba, the forum called for total overhaul of national security strategies to Nigeria’s slide into anarchy from extremism and insurgency.

ACF said the time to act on the ravaging insecurity was now, “The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) is gravely saddened to receive the recent highly disturbing news of a tragic insecurity incidents at Borno and Plateau states. Earlier, similar attacks in Katsina, Kwara, Niger, Zamfara and other states had also been recorded.

“The bomb blast at Maiduguri, Borno State, on Monday 16th March 2026 left in its wake, deaths, injuries and other traumatic impacts on scores of persons. The bombing incident came on the heels of devastating attacks on military formations in the state, resulting in deaths and injuries to gallant soldiers as well as the destruction and the looting of critical military facilities.”

The forum stated, “Similarly, days earlier in Plateau State, yet more violent gun attacks on communities took place, followed by the killing of military personnel by criminal elements. Earlier incidents in Katsina, Kwara, Niger, and Zamfara states have grimly added to the sordid statistics.

“The tragic bloodletting incidents have inevitably resulted in tragic losses of lives and property, disruption of livelihoods and fractured social relations.

“ACF remains gravely worried and disheartened, almost to the point of despair, about such occurrences. It is most counterintuitive that our communities continue to experience these incidents as they fester unabated.”