A group, under the auspices of Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and Development, CNEEPD has said the excuses being peddled by the Service Chiefs over insecurity in the country was no longer tenable.
The group which comprises of Elders from the North East, said in a statement at Sunday, that President Muhammadu Buhari should as a matter of urgency listen to the voice of the majority of Nigerians by implementing the recent resolution of both chambers of the National Assembly asking him to rejig the country’s security architecture with a view to improving the security of Nigeria which they noted,had become so unbearable.
The statement, entitled:”We Are Tired of Excuses, Sack Service Chiefs Now”, was signed by their chairman, Engr. Zana Goni.
CNEEPD, said they were compelled to speak out following what they called “the growing security problems in the country, regretting that their silence before now was misconstrued by some people and sections of the country because of the geographical background of the security chiefs, explaining that their action was nothing close to that.
According to the elders,they exhibited silence for some time in the belief that things would get better as always being promised by the security heads and assurances of the president.
But we have seen that in spite of the funding of the military by our dear president and the assurances by our service chiefs that things would change, nothing seems to happen in that direction. This is regrettable,” they said in the statement.
“The worsening security situation in the country is further reinforcing the urgent need to inject new hands with fresh ideas to handle the nation’s security architecture. We have seen that the security situation under the current service chiefs has reached an unbearable state.”
“There is no denying the fact that at this moment,the entire nation is distressed by the incessant mindless killing of our citizens and pillaging of defenseless communities by insurgents, bandits and kidnappers. There is no denying the fact also that these have resulted to indescribable agony, anguish and torment to the Nigerian citizens.”
“And following these mentioned above,we,the Coalition of North East Elders for Peace and Development, in the strongest terms, restate the call to President Muhammadu Buhari to honor the resolution of the National Assembly and positions of majority of Nigerians to immediately remove the service chiefs and bring in new hands to effectively confront the security challenges starring us in our face as a nation,” the elders said in the statement.