Security: ACF Expresses Concern Over New Terror Group in Sokoto, Kebbi, Seeks Urgent Action

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has noted that the emergence of the new terrorist group in the parts of Sokoto and Kebbi state is worrisome, dangerous, and alarming, as it indicates an escalation in the devastating state of insecurity.

The forum called for urgent action by the Nigerian military to subjugate and decapitate the so-called Lakurawa terror group that is terrorising residents of Sokoto and Kebbi state in the Northwest zone with all the human and material arsenals at their disposal, without hesitation.

According to a statement released by the Forum’s National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, the growth of the Lakurawa terrorist organization in the Northwest zone is alarming and a danger to national security interests.

The ACF warned that the group should not be tolerated in any way, allowed to establish itself, or allowed to become embedded in communities through benign neglect and/or kid-glove treatment, as was the case with the Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder conflicts, and banditry in the Northeast, Northcentral, and Northwest regions, respectively.

ACF also calls for an immediate, thorough, and comprehensive re-evaluation of strategies and tactics so that there is no question about the nation’s resolve to deal forcefully with any threats to peace and stability that terror groups, regardless of their forms or descriptions, may consider.

ACF claims that the rise of the Lakurawa terror organization highlights the necessity of strengthening and reviving the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MJTF) agreement with neighbours, adding that the Niger Republic needs to be convinced to rejoin the effort.

According to the ACF, the Nigerian Army should leverage the recent visit to the Niger Republic earlier in the year by Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, to renew cross-border international efforts to deal with terrorists.

“The Federal Government, state, and local authorities should also leverage the close complex historic socio-cultural, economic, and political ties with Nigeria’s neighbours with which to confront the mutual existential security threats that terror groups pose to all,” stated the ACF.

In addition, ACF demanded that intelligence collection, processing, storage, retrieval, deployment, and utilization be intensified. Security agencies were also urged to consider the potential involvement of local informants in communities to identify potential suspects for arrest and prosecution.

Directed towards the Office of the National Security Advisor, the statement further demanded that national security agencies cooperate more effectively and efficiently with one another.