Northern groups launch Arewa version of Amotekun a security outfit created by the Coalition of Northern Groups, CNG, was launched yesterday to operate as the northern regional security outfit similar to Amotekun.
The CNG said the reason for setting up the outfit was to complement the police and military in efforts to deal with the security problem in the region.
The outfit would also carry out specific and general task that would realign attitude and thinking of the public with the ideals and objectives of the founding fathers of the region.
Presenting what was described as the northern regional security initiative at Arewa House, Kaduna, spokesman of the group, Abdulazeez Suleiman, said the security initiative was subject to ratification by the northern governors.
He said: “For the past 12 years, the North has struggled with disabling challenges that include dwindling economy, rising poverty and more worrying, a crippling security situation that has taken a huge toll on lives, property and the overall cohesion of the region.
Northern groups launch Arewa, Amotekun and fears of the Northern elite “The situation manifested in 2008 in the form of a deadly insurgency from the Northeast and within a short time, spread to other parts of the region and virtually turned the entire region into a battlefield.
“While the insurgency raged, other disturbances were created in the region in the form of cattle rustling that pitched northern communities against each other. ‘’A new dimension was introduced to the farmers/herders conflict which gradually deteriorated into an uncontrollable proportion and deepened the artificial rift between communities in the region.”
Suleiman said the trend suddenly metamorphosed into deadly armed banditry and kidnapping for ransom which is recycled for arms and drugs. “This is in addition to another frustrating trend of the theft and forced trafficking of northern children to other parts of the country for reasons that are largely dubious.
“The culmination of these security challenges has for the past decade turned the entire region into a house of horror with violent killings reported on a daily basis, communities displaced with formal and informal IDP camps spreading across the region.
“The situation today, on most northern highways, innocent travelers are waylaid, robbed and abducted, towns and villages attacked and sacked by bandits who have created an atmosphere of palpable fear across the region,” he stated.
