Northern govs dissect Nyako’s memo, insecurity

By Lawrence Olaoye &Mohammed Umar-Puma

Northern state governors, under the aegis of the Northern State Governors Forum (NSGF), met yesterday in Abuja to review the state of insecurity in the region.

The nineteen northern governors, who met under the chairmanship of the Niger state governor, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida, immediately after the National Security Council meeting at the Presidential villa, also dissected the contents of the memo submitted to the body by the Adamawa state governor, Admiral Murtala Nyako.

The NSGF also met with the leadership of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association at the Niger House venue of the meeting to find a lasting solution to the incessant clashes between the Fulani herdsmen and the farmers in some northern states including Benue, Plateau Zamfara and Katsina.

Although the meeting was still in progress as at the time of filling this report, a source revealed that the governors engaged the Miyetti Allah leadership in discussion on how they could be domesticated and avoid migrating with their cattles from one place to another for grazing.

According to the source, the Fulani herdsmen were assured that the government would provide enough grazing grounds even as they were intimated of their plans to push for a national policy to settle nomads.

With this development, the source said, the government would be able to differentiate between genuine herdsmen and criminal impostors who hide under their name to cause havoc in the society.

The governors also examined the contents of the memo submitted by the Adamawa state governor where he alleged that Jonathan’s administration was sponsoring genocide in the north hiding under the activities of the Boko Haram insurgents.

The source said most of the governors at the meeting raised their reservations about the content of Nyako’s memo even as some argued that such could aggravate the already tensed situation in the country.

He added that the governors resolved to put their heads together to assist both Borno and the Federal Government to launch a rescue mission for the remaining 234 school girls of Government Girls Secondary School kidnapped by Boko Haram marauders in Chibok.

The source also disclosed that the governors reviewed the emergency situation in the three north-east states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe and resolved to impress it upon President Goodluck Jonathan not to consider the option of total emergency in the affected states.

They resolved to make a wider consultation, transcending political leanings, among themselves with a view to ending the spate of insecurity in the north, the source disclosed.

Those in attendance are the Niger state Governor, Babangida Aliyu, Governor of Kaduna state, Ramalan Yero, Governor of Kogi state, Idris Wada, Governor of Kebbi state Usman Saidu Dakingari, Bauchi state Governor Isa Yuguda, Benue state Governor Gabriel Suswam, and Governor of Nasarawa state, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura.

Others are Katsina state governor Ibrahim Shehu Shema, acting governor of Taraba state, Alh. Garba Umar, deputy governor of Plateau state, Ignatius Longjang, and Deputy Governor of Kano state, Umar Ganduje, among others.