Northern Youth Network has condemned in very strong terms a publication credited to the executive director of the Citizens Rights Action for Peace Mr Sani Nurudeen.
Convener of Northern Youth Network, Mallam Abdulrahman Ahmed, described the publication as unpatriotic and myopic.
The Citizens Rights Action for Peace had in a statement called on President Buhari to discountenance any attempt to extend the tenure of Chief of Defence staff, Gen. Leo Irabor, and the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal Isiaka Amao demanding for their sack and overhauling of the security architecture.
But in a reaction to the position of the citizens Rights Action for Peace, the Northern Youth Network described the release as ill-motivated and a position by a group that has failed to appreciate the tremendous success recorded by the current military chiefs since the war against insurgency and banditry began.
Mallam Ahmed stated that in recent times, the inter agency cooperation of the security chiefs has seen scrupulous operations which has led to the death and surrender of several BokoHaram/ISWAP leaders and fighters.
On the call for the sack of heads of intelligence units, the Northern Youth Network maintained that the success in the decimation of BokoHaram/ISWAP recorded was a product of serious intelligence gathering carried out by the intelligence heads.
The Northern Youth Network described the position of Sani Nurudeen as that of one who is ignorant, mischievous, sponsored by desperate politicians or sponsors of criminality in the country paid on a hatched job to weaken the morale of the gallant soldiers and deliberately misinform the public.
Mallam Ahmed stressed that, President Buhari has demonstrated a strong desire to provide all that is required to end insurgency in the country maintaining that he has issued unmistakable orders to security forces to go after terrorists and root them out.
According to Mallam Ahmed, the appointment and extension of the tenure of service chiefs is the exclusive prerogative of President Muhammadu Buhari as the commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
“At the moment, the bloody defeat being suffered by the terrorists, achieved by the impeccable intelligence gathering, and the determination of the armed forces especially the air component is enough to say, you do not change a wining team in the midst of a war.
“It is disturbing that at a time most terrorist and bandit kingpins have been killed and thousands have surrendered or their informants and collaborators arrested, the Citizens Rights Action for Peace has refused to commend the military even as it is evident that the security agencies are on the last lap of winning the war against insurgency and banditry. Knowing very well that this war is driven by effective intelligence gathering, they have come up with such attack and misleading allegations and called for the overhaul of the intelligence unit that has effectively made the war a success.
“We might not have completely defeated the terrorists but the security forces have decimated them and very soon they will be defeated. The people must continue to cooperate with security agencies and provide information about these criminals and their collaborators as they do not exist in a vacuum.
“With such resounding success in the war against insurgency and banditry by the present security chiefs, it is very important and necessary for Mr president to extend the tenure of the current Chiefs to maintain the vigour and determination to nip all forms of criminality in the bud,” Mallam Ahmed said.
