Northern women group, Jam’iyyar Mayan Arewa (JMA), has called for national conference or referendum to address the spate of insecurity, killings and banditry ravaging parts of the country, especially the North.

Since the emergence of Boko Haram in 2009, Nigeria has variously suffered spates of attacks, insurgency, banditry, but recently the insecurity has become heightened with kidnapping and killings coupled with threats of secession in the South followed by the killing of Northerners and burning of their properties in the Southeast and Southwest geopolitical zones.

While protesting the spate of killings which, they said have turned their children to orphans carried placards with various inscriptions such as, “#Stop Banditry in Arewa,” “#Stop Killing Northerners,” “#Safe Arewa,” “#Referendum is the Answer,” and “#Jaw Jaw not War War” among others.

Addressing reporters yesterday in Kaduna, President Jam’iyyar Matan Arewa, Hajiya Rabi Musa Saulawa said: “Our beloved country is sadly at the precipice. The Northern part of Nigeria has become the epicentre of the perennial crisis of epic proportions from all fronts. The North is endowed with untapped human and natural resources that can propel Nigeria as a superpower.

“Regrettably, for the past 12 years, the North has been under a relentless onslaught by Boko Haram insurgents and of recent incessant banditry, herders’-farmers’ clashes of the unknown origin with its attendant impact on the socio-economic development of the region and the country at large.”