The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) has asked Zamfara State Governor, Bello Matawalle to reveal the identities of those behind the recent kidnappings in the state.
Matawalle had on Sunday told the 17 Emirs in the state who paid him a sympathy visit over the abduction of the Government Girls’ Secondary School in Jangebe that Nigerians would be shocked to know people behind the abduction of the girls.
Reacting to the governor’s remark via a statement issued on Tuesday, ACF Chairman, Audu Ogbeh, described Matawalle ‘s allegation as an embarrassment to the north and warned against such unguarded statement by those in authority.
Ogbeh said the Forum is not taking the Governor’s statement lightly and asked him to name the kidnappers and their sponsors.
“The Arewa Consultative Forum ACF is stunned by a statement accredited to the Zamfara Governor, Bello Matawalle. We ask the governor to reveal their identity and let Nigerians be shocked or even the heavens fall,” the group said.
“The ACF has been embarrassed by the spate of kidnappings especially of school children spreading like wild fire all over the north.
“People in positions of authority that will help us out of this mess like Governor Matawalle must stop embarrassing the north and country with careless statements on a serious issue like the kidnappings of school children.
“Zamfara State and the north are way behind the rest of the country in educational development. The serial kidnappings of school pupils in the north will only worsen a bad and unacceptable state of education in the North.”
Gunmen had on February 26 stormed the government secondary school in Jangebe and abducted over 300 female students in their dormitories.
