Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar has been applauded Northern Elders for summoning the courage to voice out on the worsening security situation in the north.
The elders said the monarch’s comments have vindicated their position that insecurity in the north was getting worse.
Recall that the Sultan during the Nigerian Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) had narrated how bandits “go around in the villages, households, and markets with their AK 47 rifles, they stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed.”
In a statement released by the National Coordinator of Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development (CONEPD), Engr. Zana Goni and National Women Leader, Hajia Mario Bichi, the elders pointed out the utterances of the monarch did not only reflect the true situation of things but had vindicated them.
The elders appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to heed the advice of most Nigerians by rejigging the security architecture and appointing young minds who will salvage the situation.
They further charged other leaders to speak up against insecurity and other precarious situation bedeviling the country.
The statement reads: “We most respectfully commend the Sultan of Sokoto, our father, for stating the true position of things in the North, as it concerns insecurity.
“We had said it over and over again, that the state of insecurity had reached a point where our farmers can hardly access their farms, even as travellers on busy highways can no longer guarantee their safe arrival without being kidnapped.