The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has said the people of the
North do not need anyone’s approval to live in the South-West.
Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, Director, Publicity and Advocacy, made
the declaration in a statement on Friday.
The NEF position was in reaction to the decision of the
leadership of the Amalgamated Union of Traders and Cattle Breeders Association
Union (AUTCBAU) to call off its strike.
Their action, refusal to transport food and cattle to the
southern part of the country, followed attacks on its members and related
threats.
The Forum hailed the decision of the Federal Government to
address multiple taxation and extortion on federal highways along the country’s
eastern corridor, from Borno through Adamawa to states in the South-East and
the South-South.
NEF said checkpoints numbering more than one hundred had
been pronounced as illegal, yet they are tolerated by the authorities.
The body observed that the effects stifled trade and
massively raised the cost of transporting food items and cattle.
The Forum condemned “the involvement of a private citizen
identified as supporting threats to the security of northern communities in the
South-West and the mention of some people creating intense hostility around
northerners living in the South-West”.
NEF said some persons mentioned as having been contacted to
give assurances to northern traders, herders and transporters were fingered by
the police for involvement in criminal activities against northerners in the
South-West.
The forum rejected the idea that the federal government or
its agents could encourage the outsourcing of its duty and responsibility of
protecting citizens to individuals, “who are neck-deep in encouraging violence
and corruption of communal co-existence”.
Baba-Ahmed commended Governors in the South-West and
stakeholders working with the federal government to improve security and urged
them to exercise their responsibilities diligently.
The statement encouraged members of northern communities to
continue to live in peace with other communities and explore all avenues to
improve better inter-communal relations.
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