ALERT: ‘Foreign invaders masquerading as religious extremists’ — Christian elders raise alarm

The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) has blamed “foreign invaders masquerading as religious extremists” for the spate of killings in Nigeria.

Samuel Gani, former deputy governor of Taraba state and chair of the forum; and Bosun Emmanuel, a pastor; NCEF disclosed this during a press conference on Friday. 

The organisation, whose membership comprises renowned technocrats and eminent Nigerians, said “indigenous ethnic nationalities have the same and common enemy in the foreign invaders”.

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NCEF also asked President Bola Tinubu to implement the report of the 2014 national conference “without further delays”, while calling for “an immediate ban on nomadic cattle rearing and abolishment of the RUGA project”.

“Recently, a community leader in the Niger Delta raised the alarm that a displacement invasion is ongoing. Similar reports have been made in Taraba, Benue, Adamawa, and in other parts of the country,” the statement reads.

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“Shortly after the abduction of 287 secondary school children in Kuriga, Kaduna state, a security expert stated on Arise TV that the location of the camps of the bandits was known to government four years ago.

“The ethnic nationalities should assert their right and ownership over their ancestral land and assert the dominion of their thrones in Nigeria.

“The ethnic socio-cultural groups such as Afenifere, Ohaneze, Ndigbo, Arewa Consultative Group, Middle Belt Forum, and PANDEF should consider these issues in greater detail.

“Nigerians have no problem with each other. It is external forces that are seeking to tear the country apart for hostile takeover of the land and its resources.

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“The demand for devolution of power should be intensified by the ethnic nationalities.”

The group also recommended that Tinubu should appoint a “special investigator to conduct a commission of inquiry into the causes, as well as expose the actors, in the various acts of terrorism and insurgency that have overwhelmed Nigeria since 2009”.