THE Northern States Governors Forum, known to many by its acronym, NSGF, have appealed to terrorist groups in Nigeria to give peace a chance, saying a situation where aggrieved individuals take the law into their hands will not advance the cause of peace.
The Chairman of the forum and governor of Niger State, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, said the senseless killing of innocent citizens from Thursday last week through the weekend in various parts of the North negated all efforts to restore peace to the region.
In a statement signed by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Danladi Ndayebo, the NSGF expressed serious concerns at the renewed attacks on citizens, including a fire incident caused by a bomb blast at Gamboru Market in Borno State on Thursday, and the killing of 10 people at Kogom Village in Plateau State on the same day.
The forum also expressed alarm at the killing of five young men who were playing a card game in Gombe town on Friday, and another five deaths and arson in Wukari, Taraba State on Saturday when Hausas and Jukuns reportedly engaged each other in a bloody combat.
Yet another incident identified by the forum was the violent death of five persons on Sunday in Zangon Kataf Local Government of Kaduna State.
The NSGF decried the rising wave of murders of innocent Nigerians and the increasing propensity of citizens to resort to violence to settle their differences, saying that the surest way to resolve differences is through dialogue. It challenged aggrieved Nigerians, wherever they are, to follow this path.
The forum commiserated with the families of those killed or injured during the blast and called on the security agencies to redouble their efforts in the discharge of their responsibilities of protecting the lives and property.
The Northern Governors were working closely with the federal government to ensure that normalcy returns to the region, the statement said.
The appeal comes as a video surfaced on the internet on Monday, showing seven French hostages kidnapped from Northern Cameroon with three masked militants .
Released by the extremist group Boko Haram, the video, posted on YouTube and mentioned on a jihadist website, shows one of the two French men reading a statement, with a woman in between them.
Four children sat on the ground near them, flanked by two masked militants dressed in camouflage and holding rifles.
A masked militant in the video said the sect kidnapped the Moulin Fournier family — three adults and four children — who were taken from outside a national park in Cameroon on Feburary 19.
“Let the French President know that he has launched war against Islam and we are fighting him everywhere. Let him know that we are spread everywhere to save our brothers,” the man said in Arabic.
The man threatened to kill the French hostages if group’s demands were not met.
The video appears to have been filmed outside, as prayer mats hung in the background swaying in a breeze.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement that “for us, these images are horribly shocking. They show cruelty without limits”.