President Muhammadu Buhari met with members of the Northern Governors ‘ Forum at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, behind closed doors on Monday.
At the end of the meeting, Governor Aminu Masari said the governors were in the villa to seek presidential intervention to address the threat of Boko Haram in the north-east, banditry and kidnapping in the north-west and north-central regions.
He added that the president was briefed by the governors on their concerns over insurmountable security challenges in their respective states.
“The issue that brought us to the president is the rising insecurity in the northwest, north-central and north-eastern regions.
“North-east is known for the Boko Haram insurgency, but it has turned out to be something different from what we had before from what was known to be cattle rustling in Northwest and some parts of Northcentral.
“This concern has made us come and brief the president in order to take urgent action to curb this deadly threat of banditry that gradually graduates into insurgency.
“You know the North-West with a vast area of forest going north-central and going out of Nigeria afterwards.
“So, we need to act swiftly and decisively to prevent it from turning into something else like what we had in the northeast,” he said.
He said the governors offered suggestions on how to address the issues, and Mr. Buhari gave his word and commitment that the federal government will do something to help the states check them out.
However, Mr Masari refused to give the specific suggestions offered by the governors as well as what the president promised to do, saying that “the details are not yet for public use.”
On the fate of Daura’s District Head, Musa Umar, who was kidnapped 26 days ago, he said: “I think the police are working seriously and some progress has been made. But they can’t reveal everything they’ve done for security reasons for obvious reasons, but work is going on.
