The Coalition of Northern Group (CNG) has announced the establishment of a security outfit known as “Shege-Ka-Fasa”, its own version of “Amotekun”to tackle the security challenges facing the north.
Announcing the establishment of the outfit on Wednesday at a news conference in Kaduna, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, spokesman of the group, said the CNG had written to the Northern States Governors Forum (NSGF) to support the group.
He said the if the northern governors and leaders from the region fail to give the necessary support, the CNG will obtain the required legal backing for the outfit from the relevant federal authorities.
Abdulhazeez explained that “the outfit is designed to be the vanguard of the entire North, encompassing every ethnic group and religion and would be patriotic in its operations in addition to performing general complimentary tasks for enhancing security in the region”.
He said “If the state governments and other leaders of the region fail to take action to protect the region the way their southern counterparts are doing, CNG is willing to follow through with all the processes of obtaining the required legal backing for the outfit from the relevant federal authorities.
“We resolved to formalize this request by writing to the governors through the Northern Governors Forum and to the leaderships of traditional, religious and cultural institutions in the region.
“We wish to draw attention that it is absolutely impossible to expect that communities would continue to fold their arms while criminals invade their abodes, kill, abduct and displace them”.
He said further that “by this, today we unveil the symbols for the Shege Ka Fasa outfit which would be formally inaugutated in the coming few weeks when all necessary legal processes might have been completed or formally adopted and ratified by the northern states governors.”
According to the group, “for the past 12 years, the North has struggled with disabling challenges that include dwindling economy, rising poverty and more worrying, a crippling security situation that has taken a huge toll in lives, property and the overall cohesion of the region”
He said “the situation manifested in 2008 in the form of a deadly insurgency from the Northeast and within a short time, spread to other parts of the region and virtually turned the entire region into a battlefield”.
The CNG lamented that “while the insurgency raged, other disturbances were created in the region in the form of cattle rustling that pitched northern communities against each other.
“A new dimension was introduced to the farmers/herders conflict which gradually deteriorated into an uncontrollable proportion and deepened the artificial rift between communities in the region.
“This trend suddenly metamorphosed into a deadly armed banditry and kidnapping for ransom which is recycled for arms and drugs.”
Abdulhazeez also noted “the theft and forced trafficking in northern children to other parts of the country for reasons that are largely dubious.”
He said the culmination of these security challenges has turned the entire region into a house of horror with violent killings reported on a daily basis as communities were being displaced with formal and informal IDP camps spreading across the north.