The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called on the Federal Government to eradicate banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism from the country.
The call came in the wake of the abduction of female students at the Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State.
In a statement issued in Kaduna on Sunday by Professor Tukur Muhammad Baba, the forum’s spokesman noted: “It is with utter consternation that the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) received news about the abduction of mostly female students of the Federal University Gusau (FUGUS) from their private hostels at Sabon Gida Village, Bungudu Local Government Area of Zamfara State.”
ACF noted that while official information about the incident is scanty, personal testimonies from witnesses suggest that the attack was well-planned, coordinated, and executed by bandits and terrorists.
The statement noted that female students were targeted, and the bandits were at the crime scene fully prepared, such that despite the efforts of troops of the Nigerian Army, they still went away with a yet-to-be-ascertained number of hapless victims.
ACF condemned the abductions in the strongest of terms while calling on the Federal Government to spare no efforts in ensuring that the abducted students are released unharmed.
The forum also urged the Federal Government to rejig Nigeria’s security architecture and come up with new multi-pronged containment strategies against security and related existential threats bedevilling schools and, indeed, all communities.
Such new strategies, ACF said, should aim at total eradication of the scourge of banditry and terrorism nationwide.
