The Coalition of Northern Teams (CNG), on Wednesday, raised the alarm over what it describes as a coordinated and escalating onslaught towards Northern Nigeria, alleging that overseas pursuits and home saboteurs are collaborating to destabilise the area and plunge the nation into deeper insecurity.
CNG expressed concern that the USA, regardless of its superior intelligence capabilities, has fallen for a “harmful propaganda narrative” portraying the violence in Plateau and Benue as genocide, whereas overlooking the far heavier casualties recorded in Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Kebbi, Borno, and different northern states.
In a press release signed by its Nationwide Coordinator, Comrade Jamilu Aliyu Charanchi, the group mentioned the current surge in violent assaults throughout the North bears the hallmarks of a deliberate and well-funded agenda, orchestrated each inside and outdoors the nation.
Charanchi mentioned it was “alarming” that U.S. President Donald Trump seems influenced by “misinformation not supported by the CIA, FBI, and even the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria.”
He famous that Trump’s particular envoy for Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, had publicly dismissed the genocide claims as baseless.
He mentioned: “CNG is severely disturbed that the current escalation of assaults seems timed to validate these fictitious genocide claims and to arrange the worldwide stage for hostile actions towards Nigeria.
These assaults aren’t random; they’re deliberate makes an attempt to present false narratives the looks of reality.
“We due to this fact urge the Federal Authorities to recognise that Nigeria is confronting a premeditated inside and exterior conspiracy to destabilise the nation.
The federal government should act decisively by figuring out, exposing, and prosecuting all these, each native and overseas, who manufacture and unfold such poisonous falsehoods, in order that they function a transparent deterrent to others who could want to weaponise misinformation towards Nigeria.”
CNG famous that the sudden surge in assaults on church buildings and Christian communities seems designed to bolster the externally crafted propaganda narrative.
The group mentioned this sample raises severe questions on whether or not the timing and targets are coincidental or intentionally manipulated. It vowed that Northern Nigeria is not going to permit its safety challenges to be weaponised for overseas, native, or separatist political agendas.
In keeping with the group, these incidents are clearly past odd banditry. They bear the hallmarks of political orchestration meant to destabilise communities and plunge the area into deeper chaos.
CNG insisted that Northern Nigeria must not ever develop into a theatre for worldwide manoeuvres or separatist propaganda, stressing that the blood of its residents can’t function forex for anybody’s agenda.
The CNG famous that it’s disturbed that the resurgence of assaults had set the North again, with the closure of 47 Federal Authorities Unity faculties and plenty of others throughout Katsina, Niger, Kwara, amongst others.
The CNG regrets that this failure is so obtrusive that authorities have now resorted to closing faculties throughout a area that’s already educationally deprived and bears the very best variety of out-of-school kids within the nation.
Such measures, the group warns, additional compound long-standing developmental setbacks within the North.
CNG warned that ongoing assaults throughout the North, together with current kidnappings in Kwara, Kebbi, Niger, and Zamfara, aren’t random acts of banditry however “politically orchestrated assaults” designed to bolster foreign-backed propaganda.
The kidnapping of worshippers in Kwara, schoolgirls in Kebbi, and 315 college students and academics in Niger State, alongside the homicide of a Brigadier Basic, it mentioned, level to an escalating risk that mirrors previous mass abductions, such because the Kuriga incident of March 2024.
CNG additional highlighted the kidnapping of 64 residents in Tsafe, Zamfara, occurring on the very day the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, visited the state, describing it as a stark reminder of the deepening insecurity and the persevering with vulnerability of residents.
The group famous that a number of villages throughout the North have been ravaged in current days, leaving households traumatised and livelihoods destroyed.
He added, “The killing of a Brigadier Basic,” it added, “underscores the gravity of the risk and mirrors previous mass abductions, such because the Kuriga assault of seven March 2024, proving that the menace beforehand claimed to have been subdued has resurfaced with renewed aggression.”
The group condemned the unfold of harmful misinformation, together with a viral video allegedly exhibiting IPOB terrorists disguising themselves as Hausa/Fulani attackers to incite ethnic hatred. It mentioned such propaganda varieties a part of a broader technique to distort public understanding and deepen nationwide divisions.
The group demanded that the Federal Authorities expose and prosecute all sponsors and collaborators of terrorism, together with politicians, businessmen, clergy, overseas brokers, and compromised safety officers.
He urged authorities to leverage intelligence to trace and dismantle worldwide networks financing mass abductions, warning that the current resurgence of faculty kidnappings signifies a worrying pattern.
CNG held the federal government liable for the persistent deterioration of safety as a result of what it described as an “incoherent, complacent, and dangerously detached” method.
It challenged leaders in any respect ranges to recommit themselves to securing lives and property, warning that historical past would choose harshly any chief who fails on this fundamental obligation.
The group additional demanded that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu act decisively by deploying Service Chiefs to stay in affected theatres till terrorist networks are dismantled. It additionally referred to as for a high-powered monitoring committee to make sure clear and common updates on the safety state of affairs.
CNG urged federal and state governments, in addition to conventional rulers, to harmonise their efforts and current a united entrance towards the escalating disaster. It reiterated the necessity to shut and safe Nigeria’s porous borders to stem the inflow of prison parts and weapons.
