ACF demands action to crush new terror group in Sokoto, Kebbi as acting Army arrives Sokoto

A northern sociocultural group, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has called for urgent action by the Nigerian military to subjugate and decapitate the Lakurawa terror group that is terrorizing residents of Sokoto and Kebbi states in the North West Zone with all the human and material arsenals at their disposal, without hesitation.

ACF has described the emergence of the new terrorist group as very dangerous and alarming, as it portends escalation in the already bad state of insecurity in the region.

In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad -Baba, the Forum noted that the emergence of the Lakurawa terror gang in the North-West Zone raises serious concerns and has furthers grave challenge to national security interests.

It therefore, warned that the group should not be towed with in any form or be tolerated or allowed to entrench itself or embedded in communities through benign neglect and/or kid-glove treatment, as was the case with Boko Haram insurgency, farmer-herder clashes and banditry in the Northeast, Northcentral and Northwest areas, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Acting Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Olufemi Oluyede has arrived in Sokoto for his maiden operational visit to 8th Division Area of Responsibility.

In the North-Western state, he is expected to visit the Sultan of Sokoto and meet with other relevant stakeholders within the 8th Division Area of Responsibility.

He would use the opportunity to address troops of the Operation Fasan Yamma fighting terrorists in the northwest region.

Oluyede’s visit comes three days after the Defence Headquarters confirmed the emergence of a new terror group known as ‘Lakurawa’ in Sokoto and Kebbi states.

Five local government areas of Sokoto state are facing the challenge of a new terror group known as the Lakurawa.

ACF further urges an immediate, comprehensive and thorough re-appraisal of strategies and tactics such as to leave no one in doubt about the national resolve to deal decisively with any threats to the nation’s peace and stability as may be contemplated by terror groups of whatever forms or descriptions.

According to ACF, the emergence of the Lakurawa terror group brings into sharp focus a need for the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MJTF) arrangement with neighbours to be reinvigorated and reinforced, noting that the Niger Republic must be persuaded to return to participate in the endeavour.

“The visit to the Niger Republic earlier in the year by Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, should be utilised as a fulcrum for renewed cross-border international efforts to deal with terrorists,” the statement read.

“The Federal Government, state and local authorities should also leverage on the close complex historic socio-cultural, economic and political ties with Nigeria’s neighbours with which to confront the mutual existential security threats that terror groups pose to all.

The group called for the intensification of intelligence gathering, processing, storage, retrieval, deployment and utilisation; while also urging security agencies to pay attention to the possible involvement of local informants in communities with a view to fishing out the culprits for possible arrest and prosecution.

The statement called for a greater and more effective and efficient inter-agency collaboration among National Security Agencies under the coordination of the Office of the National Security Advisor.