The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF), on Friday, alloted blame to foreign invaders masquerading as religious extremists, for the increased killings in Nigeria.
During a press conference addressed by Samuel Gani, former Deputy Governor of Taraba State and chair of the forum, NCEF called all ethnic groups “to come together to renegotiate Nigeria.”
The organisation, whose membership comprises renowned technocrats and eminent Nigerians, said “indigenous ethnic nationalities have the same and common enemy in the foreign invaders.”
NCEF also asked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to implement the report of the 2014 national conference “without further delays”, while calling for “an immediate ban on nomadic cattle rearing and abolishment of the RUGA project.
“Recently, a community leader in the Niger Delta raised the alarm that a displacement invasion is ongoing. Similar reports have been made in Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, and in other parts of the country.
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“Shortly after the abduction of 287 secondary school children in Kuriga, Kaduna state, a security expert stated on Arise TV that the location of the camps of the bandits was known to government four years ago.
“The ethnic nationalities should assert their right and ownership over their ancestral land and assert the dominion of their thrones in Nigeria.
“The ethnic socio-cultural groups such as Afenifere, Ohaneze, Ndigbo, Arewa Consultative Group, Middle Belt Forum, and PANDEF should consider these issues in greater detail.
“Nigerians have no problem with each other. It is external forces that are seeking to tear the country apart for hostile takeover of the land and its resources.
“The demand for devolution of power should be intensified by the ethnic nationalities,” the statement read.
The group also recommended that Tinubu should appoint a “special investigator to conduct a commission of inquiry into the causes, as well as expose the actors, in the various acts of terrorism and insurgency that have overwhelmed Nigeria since 2009.”
