Group hold rally in support of PMB on war over insurgents

A civil society group, the Coalition for Peace and Stability [COPS], on Tuesday, November 21, 2017, practically shut commercial activities at the popular Wuse Market in Abuja, the FCT, as they held a rally n support of

Members of COPS who marched from the Market to the Presidential Villa while singing solidarity songs likened President Buhari to the biblical David whom they said succeeded in conquering terrorism in the entity called Nigeria.

The National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Abdulmumini Tijani, who spoke on behalf of the group, called on the Nigerian Military to do all within its power to finish off the remnants of the Boko Haram insurgents in the shortest time possible so that Nigeria would be in a position to celebrate total freedom from the 'blood-thirsty terrors'.

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While speaking, Comrade Tijani said:

“The Institute for Economics and Peace has, however, auspiciously accelerated our achievement of this objective when it released the Global Terrorism Index 2017.

From what is in the news about the report, it shows that the number of those killed in terror attacks has reduced by 80%.

What we understand by this is that eight out of or other terrorists would have killed are alive.

For us, the Coalition for Peace and Stability, this is a testimony that s committed to fulfilling his campaign promise of restoring security in the country.

It is remarkable that keeping this promise has the international impact because the Global Terrorism related deaths fell since the figures for Nigeria dropped.

It is our earnest hope that this international impact will translate into positive gains like restored investors' interest in Nigeria.

We also expect that those ill see this report as reasons to cut off the lifeline they provide to terrorists.

Human life is precious and sacred and nothing should be done to cut it short for whatsoever reason.

Our coalition not only congratulates President Buhari on this positive report but also commend Mr. President for this achievement considering that most of the efforts that have gone into degrading and defeating Boko Haram are homegrown.

We also commend the Nigerian Army under the leadership it the Chief of Army Staff [COAS], who leads a military to be proud of.

Soldiers under his command continue to perform no mean feats even with funding constraints, and blockade of weapons supply by some interested countries.

COPS urge stakeholders, NGOs and human rights organizations and all well-meaning Nigerians to increase their support of President Buhari’s war on terror because our desire is to record zero terrorism-related deaths.

Our belief is that when Mr. President and the military get more support, the remnants of Boko Haram can be further degraded to a point where they are not able to cause sorrows and tears among us anymore.

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While calling for support for President Buhari, we urge his administration to dutifully take a critical look at the Global Terrorism Ranking to see what areas improvements can be made in a way that more gains are made by our military in the year 2017/2018.”

The COPS further appealed to Nigeria's international partners to take note of what the country has achieved with the minimal support and to, on the basis of that, extend to Nigeria the support needed to restore peace to the West African sub-region.

While addressing the rally at the Villa, Senior Special Assistant to President Buhari on Media and Publicity, Shehu Garba, thanked the group for their support of the anti-terrorism war of the current government.

A visibly elated Shehu said:

“This is the kind of support the government needs at this critical time. I must assure you that the President is not relenting on his words that Nigeria must be free from terrorism.

In fact, our gallant military troops are working day and night to ensure that all our towns and villages are captured from the extremists.

As I speak, I can boldly tell you that no local government in Nigeria is under the control of the insurgents.

That goes a long way to tell you that the government is keeping to its promise on the war against the insurgency.”