The Northern Elders Forum has called on the Federal Government to immediately declare a national security emergency, warning that worsening violence, kidnappings and bandit attacks across the country pose a serious threat to Nigeria’s stability and economic survival.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the spokesperson for the forum, Abubakar Jiddere, said the country was experiencing an unprecedented security crisis, with criminal activities spreading across several regions and leaving millions of Nigerians vulnerable.
The forum expressed concern over what it described as the government’s inability to adequately protect lives and property, noting that communities in states such as Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Plateau, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Borno, Oyo, Edo, Enugu and Imo continued to face attacks from bandits, kidnappers and other armed groups.
According to the statement, the growing prevalence of kidnapping-for-ransom had transformed into a sophisticated criminal enterprise fuelled by weak law enforcement, porous borders, illegal arms proliferation and inadequate intelligence coordination.
The group said the consequences of the security challenges were evident in declining agricultural production, displacement of farming communities, collapsing rural economies, disruption of education and increasing poverty among affected families.
