A coalition of northern professionals under the aegis of Arewa Restoration Alliance has declared that the region will continue to lag behind in development unless the worsening security challenges are decisively tackled.
The group stated this yesterday in Abuja at the end of its meeting, where it urged northerners to support ongoing military operations aimed at crushing terrorists, bandits and other violent groups destabilising the region.
Its president, Muktar Danfulani, said the North’s economic potential remains crippled by insecurity, warning that foreign investors and local businesses are reluctant to channel resources into the region.
“At present, it is difficult for any organisation or foreign country to consider the North for economic investments due to the security challenges,” he said. “We must rally round the Armed Forces of Nigeria under the leadership of our son, the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, to restore peace.”
Danfulani commended the Armed Forces for recent gains, including the arrest of two key leaders of Ansaru, an al-Qaeda affiliate in Nigeria. Those arrested were identified as Mahmud Usman, also known as Abu Bara’a, the group’s overall coordinator of sleeper cells and mastermind of kidnappings and terror financing, and Mahmud al-Nigeria, alias Mallam Mamuda, head of the “Mahmudawa” faction based around Kainji National Park.
He noted that al-Nigeria was trained in Libya by foreign jihadists from Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria, with expertise in weapons handling and improvised explosive device (IED) fabrication.
The group also hailed troops for rescuing 23 kidnap victims in separate operations across Sokoto and Adamawa states. The victims included 17 girls abducted by bandits and six others seized by suspected Boko Haram insurgents.
