Northern States Governors’ Forum, (NSGF) yesterday met in Kaduna to address the lingering kidnapping of 110 girls of Secondary School Dapchi, Yobe State, and farmers/herders clashes in the region.
Speaking at the opening session of the meeting held at the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, Borno State, Chairman of the forum, Governor Kashim Shettima called on his colleagues to look at the issues dispassionately with a view to arriving at genuine solutions.
He also disclosed that the forum will receive the report of restructuring committee headed by Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal. He said the region will come up with a position on the issue like other regions.
He said: “Top on the agenda of today’s meeting is the issue of the lingering inter-communal crisis in various parts of the region, which, in recent times, appear to be escalating with deadly and destructive consequences, such as the conflicts between farmers and herdsmen.
“As elected leaders, it is our primary responsibility to take a hard and critical look at these conflicts and come up with implementable ways and means of addressing them squarely. It is also critically important, as a long term measure, to device viable strategies to forestall all forms of security challenges that may likely erupt in the future.”
He, however, emphasised that whatever resolutions the forum may arrive at, should be without prejudice to the various commendable and comprehensive measures being put in place by the Federal Government in addressing the security challenges; especially the recent abduction of the Dapchi School Girls.
Shettima lamented that in the last few days, Taraba and Kaduna states have, again, experienced spates of deadly and destructive communal clashes which culminated in the loss of many lives and destruction of millions of naira worth of property.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, yesterday, threw jabs at the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, over the recently kidnapped 110 girls of Government Girls Science Technical College, Dapchi, Yobe State.
Akpabio, who spoke during the foundation laying ceremony of the Editors’ Plaza, a project of the Nigerian Guild of Editors in Abuja, said if the situation had been the other way round, Mohammed would have been saying something different today.
He, particularly recalled the role played by Mohammed prior to the 2015 elections, saying that if the Dapchi incidence had happened before the 2015 elections, Mohammed would have had a fantastic caption for the Dapchi girls kidnap; “but, because of where he is now, all he could do was to shake his head on the television.
“My brother Lai Mohammed, I must thank you for the way you used to criticize me when I was a governor. I think you are doing a very difficult job well. That is what I will say,” Akpabio added.
Responding to Akpabio’s remarks, Mohammed said: “I am happy I came here, because, if I had not come, I am sure the very tempered, patriotic speech delivered by the Senate Minority Leader, might not have been exactly the same thing.
“Honestly, I want to say please, don’t compare apple with oranges. When Chibok happened, it took your government 18 full days to admit that anybody was kidnapped. This time around, we swung into action within 24 hours.
“And, as I speak today, I have been to Damaturu and Dapchi twice within one week; the Chief of Air Staff and the National Security Adviser (NSA) have been there; as of yesterday, we deployed over 200 hours of sorties flying over, looking for the girls.”
-Sun