ACF to Buhari: End killing, kidnapping of women, children now

Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to “immediately put an end to the killings of women and children in the North.
” ACF chairman and a former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmadu Coomassie, made the appeal yesterday when he led the ACF National Working Committee to receive the leadership of the foremost Northern women socio-cultural organisation, Jam’iyya Matan Arewa (JMA) at the Forum’s headquarters in Kaduna, to discuss ways of protecting children and women in the region from incessant attacks.
Nigeria has suffered various clashes between herdsmen and farmers which left hundreds of women and children killed and injured.
Similarly, over 300 girls have been kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in Chibok, Borno state and lately Dapchi in Yobe state.
However, while calling for an end to this menace, the ACF lamented that the “North needs to change the narrative of its morphology, as it has been on negative footage since return of democracy in 1999 and it cannot continue like that anymore.
” Coomassie therefore called on the federal government to improve security by ending killings and kidnapping of women and children in the region.
He said: “Nigeria cannot survive without the North; hence the need for leaders from the region to put their heads together to save it from activities that depict it in negative perspective.
“Enough is enough; enough of the killing of our women and children, enough of the kidnapping of our children, enough of the destruction of our property.
We are proud that you have come forward to meet us to discuss this issue.
“We all know that without the North, Nigeria can never survive.
We still stand by it.
But now is the time to walk the talk in the interest of our people.
” Continuing, he said: “Chibok girls are still missing.
Now it has gone to Dapchi in Yobe state, what happened? Are we always going to be the victims? Boko Haram, see what they did to the Northeast.
They have spread over to the North-central and even to the southern part of the country.
“Should we continue to be regarded in the negative side? No.
We are leaders in our own right and we must exercise this responsibility for our people.
Whenever there is crisis, women and children are always the major victims.
” In her remarks, chairperson of JMA, Aishatu Pamela Sadauki, who was represented by Hajiya Aisha Aliko Muhammed, said the visit was paramount in order to plead for the course of women and children, “especially in Northern Nigeria.