Convene Meeting On Peaceful Co-existence, Afenifere Tells Tinubu

Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organization, Afenifere has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to urgently convene a “Meetings for Understanding and Peaceful Co-existence” amongst local leaders in Nigeria to stem resurgence of terrorism and banditry in the country.

The organisation in a press statement issued by its national publicity secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, emphasised that the immediate reason for the call was the terror acts unleashed in Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Borno, Sokoto, Niger, Ondo, Katsina, Rivers States etc lately.

Afenifere said there was need to tame the monster, stressing that if the terrorism acts remained unchecked in any part of the country, it would amount to putting pressures on other parts hitherto considered as safe.
The group said it was concerned because it had empathy for Nigerians and had always felt the pains of those who are at the receiving end irrespective of where they are from.

It recalled that about 200 people were reportedly killed on Christmas eve in three local government areas of Plateau State while over 10,000 were rendered homeless.

On the same Christmas eve, “12 people were reportedly killed by suspected gunmen in Kurya village, Rabbah local government area of Sokoto State. This was in addition to some killings and kidnappings that took place in the same state earlier in December 2023. That of Borno State was typified by repeated assaults in Chibok,” Afenifere said.

It explained that a careful appraisal of the ogre of terrorism etc indicated that the incidents can be categorised into four. “Those being carried out for the purpose of extorting money from people (manifesting in kidnapping). Those being carried out for territorial reasons. Those being carried out for ideological reasons and those being carried out with the encouragement of external interests as a result of mineral resources available where the victims domicile.”

Afenifere stated that for steps being taken to be effective, the above classifications must be taken into consideration.

Afenifere, therefore, urged President Tinubu to come up with a Presidential Order proclaiming State and Local Government Police and that modern security technologies must also be acquired and deployed to various parts of the country without further delay.