Northern women under the aegis of Jam’iyyar Mayan Arewa on Wednesday staged a protest over the ongoing insecurity in different parts of the country, especially the North region.
The group said that a national conference or referendum is needed to address the spate of insecurity, killings, and banditry ravaging different parts of the country.
The women who lamented that bandits and others have turned their children into orphans, carried placards with various inscriptions such as, “#Stop Banditry in Arewa,” “#Stop Killing Northerners,” “#Safe Arewa,” “#Referendum is the Answer,” and “#Jaw Jaw not War War” among others.
In her address, President of Jam’iyyar Matan Arewa, Hajiya Rabi Musa Saulawa said: “Our beloved country is sadly at the precipice. The Northern part of Nigeria has become the epicentre of the perennial crisis of epic proportions from all fronts. The North is endowed with untapped human and natural resources that can propel Nigeria as a superpower.
“Regrettably, for the past 12 years, the North has been under a relentless onslaught by Boko Haram insurgents and of recent incessant banditry, herders’-farmers’ clashes of the unknown origin with its attendant impact on the socio-economic development of the region and the country at large.”