The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has called on security agencies in Nigeria to compel the Governor of Zamfara State, Bello Matawalle, to reveal the identities of kidnappers terrorizing the country.
The ACF’s National Chairman, Chief Audu Ogbe, made the call in a statement issued in Kaduna on Tuesday.
Matawalle was quoted to have told 17 Emirs, who paid a sympathy visit on the kidnap of 317 schoolgirls from Government Girls Secondary School Jangebe in Talata Mafara, that he knew the kidnappers.
He added that if he revealed them (their identities), Nigerians would be shocked.
The ACF’s National Chairman urged the Governor not to protect the identities of the kidnappers.
“We ask the governor to reveal their identity and let Nigerians be shocked or even the heavens fall.
“We also ask the security agencies to question the governor on the identities of the criminals he is trying to hide.
“If he refuses to disclose their identities, he must be treated as an accomplice to the criminal act of kidnapping.
“The ACF has been embarrassed by the spate of kidnappings, especially of school children spreading like wildfire all over the north.
“People in positions of authority that will help us out of this mess like Governor Matawalle must stop embarrassing the north and country with careless statements on a serious issue like the kidnappings of school children.
“Zamfara State and the north are way behind the rest of the country in educational development.
The serial kidnappings of school pupils in the north will only worsen a bad and unacceptable state of education in the North,” he added.
Zamfara State, a no-fly zone
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday directed that Zamfara State be declared a no-fly zone.
The National Security Adviser (NSA), Major General Babagana Monguno (rtd), disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after a meeting of the National Security Council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Monguno said the President had also approved a ban on mining activities in Zamfara to stop the rising insecurity.
The NSA, who also revealed that all non-state actors had been placed under surveillance, said the federal government would not hesitate to use kinetic means to restore normalcy in the country.
“We can no longer afford to lose lives while operating within the legalities. We are not going to be blackmailed. The government has the responsibility to assert its will,” he said.
