The Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, a pan-Northern socio-political organisation has described as absolutely unnecessary, the decision of the Federal government to extend the over 1-year state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe for another six months.
The argument of the ACF is that before the State of Emergency was declared, the total casualties of the insurgency between 2009 and 2012 were less than 1,500, but that the figure increased drastically to over 2,700 during the one-year of the emergency rule.
Some members of the National Assembly from the affected states had also threatened to shutdown House plenaries if the two Houses of the National Assembly dare give assent to the President’s request.
President Goodluck Jonathan had on Wednesday sent a letter to the National Assembly requesting for another extension of the state of emergency in the three states. The Federal House of Representatives on Thursday gave approval to the request. The Senate is however yet to declare its stand on the issue.
Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the three states in May 2013 as a response to the incessant destruction of lives and properties in the region by Boko Haram Islamist terrorists.
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