The Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, Prof Ango Abdullahi, has lamented the growing security challenges facing the country, saying   President Muhammadu Buhari is not doing enough to salvage the situation.

The former Vice-Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, was reacting to the Presidency’s assertion that the kidnap of the district head of Daura, Buhari’s hometown in Katsina State,   had shown the security agencies were not giving any town preferential treatment.

Speaking on the abduction of Alhaji Musa Uba,  Buhari’s  brother-in-law,  the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said  on Kakaaki, a breakfast television programme on AIT,     “because the President comes from Daura, that is not to say there cannot be crime in Daura or Daura will be specially treated”.

However, Abdullahi   slammed  the Presidency, saying the current  security  issues in   the  North  was worse  than when Goodluck  Jonathan was leading the country.

In an SMS  to  our correspondent,  the NEF leader urged the Presidency to  focus on securing lives and property in the country.

He said, “I don’t understand what the reaction from the Presidency is expected to convey to the public.

“They (Presidency) should be concerned that the security failures are everywhere, including the hometown  of the President.

“Obviously there is more insecurity in the North today than during Jonathan’s leadership.”

The group last month said a spate of banditry in Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna and Sokoto states would persist without effective policing.

They also said  Buhari had no political will to effectively secure lives and property of the citizens.

Abdullahi,  who conveyed the position of the NEF,  said the police lacked the capacity to tackle the security challenges because they lacked manpower.

The professor of agronomy had said, “The President has the responsibility to face these challenges. The President, according to what we know of  the Nigerian structure and the constitution and the instrument of power, he has the instrument to deal with the challenges.”

 PUNCH.