President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met behind closed doors with members of the Northern Governors’ Forum at the Presidential Villa, Abuja in what is obviously focused on the security challenges in the region.
Speaking to State House correspondents at the end of the meeting, Governor Aminu Masari said that the governors were in the villa to seek presidential intervention in addressing the menace of Boko Haram in the Northeast, banditry and kidnapping in the Northwest and the North central regions.
He added that the governors briefed the president on their concerns about intractable security challenges in their respective states.
“The issue that brought us to the president is about the rising insecurity in the North-west, North-central and North-east.
“North-east is known for Boko Haram insurgency but of recent what was known to be cattle rustling in Northwest and some parts of North central has turned out to be something different from what we had before.
“So, this concern made us to come and brief the president so that urgent action would be taken in order to curb this deadly menace of banditry which is gradually graduating into insurgency.
“You know the North-west with a vast forest area going to North-central and then even going out of Nigeria.
“So, we need to act quickly and decisively so that it doesn’t turn into something else like what we had in the northeast,” he said.
He said the governors offered suggestions on how to tackle the problems, and that Buhari gave his word and commitment that something will be done by the federal government to assist the states check them.
Masari, however, declined to give the specific suggestions the governors offered as well as what the president pledged to do, saying that “the details are not for public consumption yet”.
On the fate of the District head of Daura, Musa Umar, who was abducted 26 days ago, he said: “I think the police are working serious and they have made some progress. But for obvious reasons, they cannot disclose all what they have done for security reasons but work is going on.”
