The Northern Governors’ Forum said it has agreed with service chiefs to adopt new methods to address the recent spate of kidnappings in the region.
Chairman of the forum and Governor of Gombe State, Inuwa Yahaya, made this known to journalists after the closed-door meeting on Thursday in Abuja.
Mr Yahaya said that the meeting, attended by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and service chiefs, reviewed the security situation and agreed to adopt alternative options to tackle it.
The governor said the alternative options would be different from what they had been doing before.
He said the governors were disposed to supporting both military and non-military options to address the security challenges.
“Already the military and all other security agencies have been doing their best.
“What we need to do is to change style, especially adding the non-kinetic approach, so that at the end of it when we join the two, we’ll have a better security situation in the country,” he added.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) earlier reported that the closed-door meeting was in response to the recent resurgence of mass abductions of students and residents in the region by terrorists.
The terrorists had on 7 March, abducted 287 primary and secondary school students in Kuriga, Kaduna State.
Also, a total of 112 Internally Displaced Persons were abducted in Gamboru Ngala, Borno, and 15 Quranic school students in Sokoto State.
