R- L: His Excellency the Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo with the Leader of the delegation Alhaji. Liman Musa Kwande; Vice Chairman Arewa Consultative Forum, Sen. Abubakar Girei; and Amb. Adamu Mohammed.18th April 2017. Photo by: Novo Isioro

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) on Tuesday reaffirmed its resolve to ensure peace reign supreme in Northern Nigeria and other parts of the country.

The forum gave the assurance while fielding questions from State House correspondents after its delegation met with Vice President Yemi Osinbajo.

The delegation presented its road map for peace, unity and development of Northern Nigeria to the Federal government.

The Deputy Chairman of ACF, Alhaji Musa Kwande, who represented its Chairman, former IG-P Ibrahim Coomassie, said the forum was consulting with relevant stakeholders to organise the Northern Nigeria security summit.

“We are organising Northern Nigeria security summit which involves the Presidency, National Assembly, state governments, security organisations and diplomats.

“We are here to inform the Vice President of our plan because the security of this nation is very important.

“You know we have a lot of problems, North-East, Benue, Kogi, Nasarawa and so on.

“We have to find the solution to the problems that we are facing in this country, not only in the North but in some parts of the country.

“We must be in peace.

“That is why we came to inform the Vice President of our intention to organise Northern Nigeria Security Summit,’’ he said.

Kwande said ACF had contributed to the peace, stability and development of the Northern people and indeed all Nigerians through dialogue and mediation, and would not relent in its effort.

He said the road map for peace was still relevant to the country’s current situation.

The ACF chief hailed the federal government for stemming the aggression of the Boko Haram insurgency, but noted that other disturbing forms of insecurity such as cattle rustling, communal clashes and ethno-religious conflicts should be tackled.

“It is our conviction that security is of paramount importance and the driver of economic development, hence security must be accorded the utmost priority,’’ he added.

On the resurgence of Southern Kaduna conflict, the Publicity Secretary of the forum, Alhaji Mohammed Ibrahim, added that the crisis was not limited to Southern Kaduna.

“The crisis is not only limited to Southern Kaduna. We have crises all over the place as you are fully aware.

“We have it in the North East, we have it in Taraba; we have it all over the place.

“So the issue is not one spot. We are addressing this and we have been promoting peace and security issues.

“Since 2001 we have intervened in so many of these ethnic, tribal, religious and so many crises of this nature.

“Even we have what we call a road map.

“We came up with the road map that will provide a kind of recommendations to help the state governments and even the federal government to address some of the security lapses that we have identified.’’

Ibrahim said that a date for the security summit would be fixed after consultations with major stakeholders.

According to him, the ACF has started with the Presidency and will next move to the National Assembly and the state governments, after which it will come out with the final date. (NAN)