The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, has expressed concern over the attacks on drivers of trucks conveying goods from the North to the South-East by suspected members of the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB.
According to ACF, the killing of the drivers and the destruction of their vehicles constituted a serious threat to national security that could lead to the breakdown of law and order and anarchy.
ACF National Publicity Secretary, Professor Tukur Muhammad-Baba, in a statement on Tuesday, said that drivers of heavy-duty haulage trucks/trailers conveying goods to and from, or merely traversing roads in the South-East were still being subjected to what he called vicious and unprovoked attacks, leading to the murder of drivers, burning of vehicles and looting of goods.
The ACF accused the security agencies and the federal government of doing nothing to tame the attacks.
According to the statement, "The attacks are being brazenly carried out by the euphemistic gunmen/gun-women who openly claim membership of terror groups, such as the so-called Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and Eastern Security Network (ESN), with the attacks directed only on northerners and northern-owned property."
The statement added that the terror merchants had continued to double down on the savage attacks and even posting video clips of the results of their gruesome actions, with gleeful taunts, on social media, saying that often, the savagery extends to burning of the corpses of hapless victims.
Only a few days ago indeed, the statement added, members of the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) demonstrated at Jos, the Plateau State Capital, to draw attention.
It alleged that over 50 drivers and about 100 trailers have been burnt over the last eight years.
The ACF noted that equally worrisome was the silence of national security agencies and the federal and the state governments.
ACF advised that no individual or groups should be allowed to visit murder, looting, arson, vandalism and general brigandage on innocent citizens, pointing out that it is was gravely saddened by the development and fully supports the contemplation by NARTO and NURTW to boycott the haulage of goods to and from the South-East until the situation was brought under control.
ACF further extended condolences to the families and friends of victims of the attacks, calling on the federal and relevant state authorities, as well as the security agencies to step-up to stop the unprovoked and extra-constitutional actions by the terror groups.
The forum also advised that perpetrators of the dastardly acts must be fished out and brought to justice, stressing that the relevant authorities ought to declare a state of emergency on the matter.
ACF further decried the silence or lip service by South-East elite, politically exposed persons and socio-cultural groups on the issue and called on them to end the lip service.
The statement then called on the governments of Enugu and Imo states to pay full compensation for lives and injuries, as well as the goods lost to the attacks.
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