CNG Welcomes President Buhari’s Resolve To Protect Citizens

BY AMOS TAUNA, KADUNA – Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG), on Thursday commended the presidency’s assurance to provide adequate security for all citizens living in any part of the country.

CNG observed that the Federal Government’s initial silence throughout the recent weeks when some Southern leaders and regional organizations were issuing incendiary threats and vituperations against the Fulani and northerners living in the South smacked of discriminatory application of the important constitutional provision.

These were contained in a statement by the spokesman of CNG, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, who said that his group is even more encouraged by the heart-warming attempt made to assure Nigerians of government’s determination to provide adequate security to all citizens living in any part of the country as contained in the nation’s constitution.

He said; “CNG feels encouraged by the sudden response by President Muhammadu Buhari to the advice for the Fulani herdsmen residing in the South to return home if their safety was no longer assured in the face of flagrant threats and intimidation.”

Suleiman said prior to President Buhari’s response, they found it more inexplicable and disturbing that government kept mute and allowed what they called errant behaviour from some Southern leaders and groups only to find its voice when threatened northerners were advised to consider returning home to safety.

According to Suleiman; “We are thus compelled to wonder what happened to the constitutional safeguard available for northerners when the government they played a key role in ushering abandoned them to the mercy of cold-blooded killers without corresponding concern or care.

“Should we assume that the hundreds of people being displaced, despoiled and depopulated in Katsina, Zamfara, Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Niger and other parts of the North are not deserving of protection and support?

“It is astonishing that the death of the daughter of an Afenifere chieftain, in the hands of unknown assailants, painful as it is, should trigger more robust and timely response than that of the large scale and massive killings being witnessed in the above mentioned northern states.”

Finally, CNG said they wholeheartedly welcome the assurance given by Mr. President and his government to protect and guarantee the safety of all Nigerians anywhere they are including the threatened herdsmen in the South.

“We however wish to remind Mr President and the government that Northerners would hold them fully responsible should any one of them fall victim of the consequences of the concerns we raised,” Suleiman said.