Twenty-two civil society organisations under the aegis of Coalition Against Mass Atrocities in the Middle Belt have asked President Bola Tinubu to end the attacks and mass killings by bandits in the region.
Address a press conference on Thursday in Kaduna, Gloria Ballason, Executive Director of House of Justice, and spokesperson of the coalition, expressed deep concern over the deteriorating security situation in the geopolitical zone.
The group condemned the persistent killings in Plateau, Benue, Nassarawa, Taraba, Kaduna, Borno, Gombe, and Adamawa states.
They called on President Bola Tinubu to consider a regional strategy to defend the endangered population in the Middle Belt.
Ballason said, to achieve this, a co-ordinated action by Middle Belt governors and the National Security Adviser (NSA) is imperative.
“We demand an urgent collaboration among governors of the middle Belt states to adopt a coordinated, regional security strategy and to ensure all lands forcibly seized and occupied by terrorists are returned to rightful owners.
“We urge the presidency to not only direct the security agencies to return displaced people and communities to their lands, but also provide the executive and political backing to discharge this responsibility to prevent the sabotaging of government directives in this regard”, the group said.
The coalition further called for the development of an integrated intelligence framework that combines local knowledge from community members with technical intelligence capabilities of security agencies to tackle the criminals.
Ballason advocated for the establishment of joint security committees among communities to address potential conflicts before they escalate into violence.
The group noted that “while government has often maintained that ‘security is everybody’s business’, the reality is that communities are unable to withstand superior fire power just by keeping surveillance.
Ballason said, “The Fire Arms Act should serve as a shield for vulnerable communities rather than a weapon against them.
“Current interpretations that prevent threatened communities from defending themselves while attackers operate with impunity must be urgently addressed through appropriate legislative reforms, executive orders, and legal sanctions.
“Licensing regimes should enable communities under threat to access firearms for their own self-defence under the supervision of the security service.
“We call on President Tinubu and the Federal Government to prioritize the Constitutional mandate for the security and welfare of the people, to deploy aids to distressed communities and ensure communities are secured for governance, census and elections.
“We remain committed to supporting initiatives that promote peace, justice, and accountability in Nigeria and are ready to collaborate with authorities both in providing the body of evidence that informs our positions and in implementing sustainable solutions to this political crisis with profound humanitarian consequence”.
