ACF Kicks Against Emergency Rule Extension
Adetokunbo Fakeye
Pan-northern socio-political organization, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), has kicked against the extension of the State of Emergency in three states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.
To ACF, it is absolutely unnecessary to extend emergency rule in the three states and thus the body has asked the National Assembly not to succumb to pressure from the Presidency to impose emergency rule on the states.
According to the ACF, before the State of Emergency was declared in the three states, the total casualties of the insurgency between 2009 and 2012 were less than 1,500, but that this figure sky-rocketed to over 2,700 during the one year of the emergency rule.
The House of Representatives on Thursday, however, approved the extension of emergency rule after a closed door briefing by security chiefs and hours of deliberations by lawmakers.
Although, some opposition lawmakers argued that the extension of emergency rule was not necessary in those states, others said that it was necessary to give a legal backing to domesticate international treaties in the fight against terror in Nigeria with the force of law.
