“Ethnic Nationalities…. Assert Your Right On Your Community & Ancestral Lands, Terrorist Have Taken Over Nigeria”. Christian Elders Forum Warn (pics)

The National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF) has said that “foreign invaders masquerading as religious extremists” are responsible for the escalating spate of killings and insecurity in Nigeria.

The forum said this during a press conference chaired by its Chairman, Samuel Gani, and former Deputy Governor of Taraba State; and Bosun Emmanuel, a Pastor; NCEF.

The Christian forum called on indigenous ethnic nationalities “to come together to renegotiate Nigeria,” saying that “indigenous ethnic nationalities have the same and common enemy in the foreign invaders.”

The NCEF further 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.”

According to the Forum, “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.

“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 the 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, Ohanaeze, 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.

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

The Forum 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.”