Insecurity: Northern group commends Tinubu, makes case for autonomous NHFSS to fight forest crimes

A group, North Central Youth Security Forum, NCYSF, has called on President Bola Tinubu to assent the Nigerian Hunters and Forest Security Service (NHFSS) Bill which has been passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The group, which has Comrade Yashim Luka Doherty as its national coordinator, made the call at a press conference on banditry and other forms of insecurities in Nigeria and the Federal capital Territory which took place at Secretariat of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Utako, Abuja.

NCYSF which harped on the need to make the NHFSS an autonomous agency under the Federal Ministry of Interior, condemned the recent kidnap and killing of many Nigerians in the Northern region, especially the FCT, Plateau and Kaduna and urged security agencies to go after the killers in order to bring them to book.

It commended the President for some tactical measures recently put in place as well as his marching order to security agencies to ensure that such barbaric acts do not repeat themselves.

The group said- “Although insecurity in Nigeria has been with us for a long time and affects all parts of the 36 states of the country and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the North Central, especially Plateau, Benue and others, as well as some states in the North West like Kaduna and Zamfara, have become hotbeds of the nefarious activities of bandits and kidnappers, thereby making life unbearable for residents of affected communities.

“On January 15, that is three days ago, Nationwide Reports, an online newspaper reported that bandits who abducted 10 persons from an estate, Sagwari Layout, Dutse, Abuja, on January 7, killed three of their victims. The killers also increased their demand from the initial N60 million per person to N100 million, totaling N700 million. Among those killed was a 13-year-old high school student, identified as Folorunsho Ariyo and Nabeeha Al-Kadriyar. The question is, if the nation’s capital territory is not safe, where else can be safe in the country?

“In spite of these ugly occurrences, we wish to commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, who is barely eight months in office but has taken very strong measures to address insecurity and other criminal activities across the country. The recent marching order given by the President, to security agencies, to bring an end to the heinous crimes perpetrated these enemies of Nigeria as well as the proactive measures being adopted by the security agencies, are reassuring of the country’s capacity to stamp out the negative trend in no distant time.

“We also believe that more hands are needed to effectively fight and bring to an end, banditry, kidnapping, terrorism and other crimes and criminalities in the country, especially as these aforementioned dangerous activities are planned by hoodlums who use forests and bushes as hideouts.”