A former presidential candidate, and chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, has urged the federal hovernment to heed to Governor Babagana Zulum’s warning on threats posed by ISWAP and take measures to end it.
Olawepo-Hashim hailed the courage of Nigerian Armed Forces and other security personnel who have continued to make huge sacrifices to wade off terror and keep the country safe.
He however tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency “construct a new defence and security architecture to permanently destroy the seed of terror and uproot banditry and kidnapping across the country”.
Speaking in a release by his media office, Olawepo-Hashim explained that for those sacrifices not to be in vain, Federal Government need to “take note of the alarm raised by Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state to the effect that Nigeria’s existence is threatened by the growing number of ISWAP fighters in some parts of the state, warning that allowing the terrorist group to grow would spell doom for the country.
“With all manners of armed groups within two hours drive to Abuja, from Niger and Kaduna, no one should downplay this threat. Governor Zulum’s warning is timely and the war in the North East and the insurgency in the North West requires a new defence and security template and perspective.
“The root causes of insecurity are rising poverty, rising illiteracy, bigotry, and hate. Nigeria will be able to rise again once we commit to tackle these causative factors of insecurity and ensure creation of framework for states and local governments to have their own police.”
According to him, “if between 2015 and now, the government has allocated approximately N5.081tn for defence, including the appropriation of N4.669tn to the Federal Ministry of defence from 2016 to date and $1bn for the purchase of military equipment, the template on the fight on terror requires political responses that must tackle the underlining causes of the threats”.
He therefore called on political leaders to put heads together to agree on a workable agenda to stabilise the bleeding nation.
He recommended the establishment of a Defence Co-operation Agreement (DCA) with a friendly nation to halt the enemy’s advance, especially the friendly nations who have triumphed over such threats before.
