Middlebelt Condemns Alleged Blocking Of Food Items To Southern Nigeria

The Middle Belt Forum, MBF has warned against any form of actions that is capable of creating a rift or widening the current aggressiveness in Nigeria.

Naija News understands that the forum stated this while reacting to an alleged blocking of food items to the South from the north by a group of persons at a village in Jebba, Niger State.

The MBF in a statement issued by its National President, Dr Pogu Bitrus, described as orchestrated and unpatriotic the wide distribution of the video clip which shows the alleged diversion of the food items.

Bitrus said the blocking of the food items was not only criminal but an attempt to throw the entire nation into chaos.

MBF said as the umbrella organization for all ethnic nationalities in the Middle Belt, it is in total disagreement with such an act. Noting that the only way for a prosperous nation is to restructure, adding that it would not only broaden the country’s potentials but give ethnic nationalities in the Nigerian Nation a space to develop and fully realise their potentials.

“We are not only stunned by this act which we believe is orchestrated by some unpatriotic elements but also shocked at this despicable action,” MBF noted.

The forum urged the federal government and other relevant security agencies to deal with the perpetrators of the acts in other to discourage retaliation from the southern part.

The statement reads further: “Amidst the ongoing banditry in various parts of the country, the deliberate blockage of food items is nothing short of waging another form of terrorism on Nigerians. We cannot as a nation afford to deal with these urchins and bandits with kid gloves.”

“If we must take back our nation from these demons of destruction, we must never negotiate and treat them softly,” the forum advised.

The MBF statement added: “We must avoid any form of aggressive tendencies in resisting and enthroning the victory of unpatriotic elements. If some elements should block the transportation of petroleum products to the North from the South as retaliatory measures, what likely consequences would this have on our nation?”

Meanwhile, the National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to clampdown on bandits and kidnappers terrorizing northern Nigeria.

The group in a statement by the NAS Capoon, Abiola Owoaje, titled: ‘Bandits Siege on Nigeria: Enough of the Empty Rhetoric’, slammed the federal government and states in Northern Nigeria for allowing bandits to have free rein in the region, Naija News reports.