Northern groups begin protest against insecurity today
The Coalition of Northern Groups yesterday declared that it would stage a protest in all the 19 northern states today against the security challenges in the region.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja, the spokesman of the coalition, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman, said the coalition would mobilise hundreds of youths in the region to the streets until their demands are met.
He said: “We observe that while the southern elected and appointed leaders and representatives are quick to identify with their people at the time of need, their counterparts from the North, including the President, the Senate President, Senators, Rep members, governors, state legislators and other government appointees would rather abandon the hundreds of thousands of people in northern communities exposed to crime, lawlessness and insecurity in the hands of bandits, insurgents, kidnappers, rapists, rustlers, and other violent criminals without any form of protection.
“We observe that it is contradictory that despite several protests and pleas by northerners, the authorities never deemed it fit to extend the swift spirit deployed against FSARS into securing the North, or addressing the myriad distresses faced by northerners.
“In the light of the foregone observations, the CNG is left with no option but to direct the extension of the protests to all northern states, commencing from Thursday, October 15, 2020”.
He said the coalition welcomed the scrapping of FSARS and its replacement with SWAT.
He said flayed the recent agreement reached by the federal government and the organized labour on the electricity tariff and fuel price hikes.
He also said the youth would simultaneously protest against continuous closure of universities over the Integrated Payroll and
Personnel Information System (IPPIS)-related issues.
“We observe that the authorities appear bent on sustaining the harsh, unacceptable regime of exploitative hikes in electricity tariffs for which the north shall bear the brunt more than other parts of the country.
“We declare the agreement reached by labour with the government on new electricity tariff unacceptable and demand the immediate, unconditional reversal to the old rates,” Suleiman said.