Our People Will Respond To Further Attacks On Communities – MBF
BY AHMED TUKUR, LAFIA – The National Executive Council (NEC), of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), has warned that the people of the region shall respond to any further attack on its communities henceforth.
The NEC of the Forum which rose from a meeting in Akwanga, Nasarawa State specifically expressed dismay over what it described as “the lackadaisical attitude” of the Federal Government in protecting the lives and property of the citizenry.
A communiqué issued at the end of the NEC meeting and read by Hon. Jonathan Asake, who is also the President, Southern Kaduna People’s Union (SOKAPU), pointedly urged members of the Forum to protect themselves from any further attack.
The MBF noted that the spate of insecurity has pushed the nation to the level of precipice, stressing that the killing in the country has assumed a genocidal level.
The communique further states; “The Middle Belt should rise up and defend themselves in the face of governments abandoning their Constitutional responsibility of defending them or seeming complicity”.
The MBF therefore called on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to arrest the situation and save the nation from another civil war.
It further states; “These attacks have left in their trail mind-boggling massacres and devastations in our communities and displacement of indigenous peoples to various IDP camps.
“Any attack on any of our communities is henceforth, considered as an attack on all communities in the Middle Belt Region with the attendant responses and consequences,” it warned.
The forum also demanded the setting up of a Commission to address and provide relief to victims of attacks.
It also states; “NEC calls on the government to set up an agency to be called the Middle Belt Development Commission to serve as an intervention agency in addressing the challenges caused by the activities of these terrorists”.
The meeting had in attendance notable leaders of the MBF namely; Senator Jonah Jang, former governor of Plateau State, Senator Barnabas Gemade, Group Captain Dan Selman among others.
