A former Secretary to the Katsina State Government, Alhaji Inuwa Mustapha, has advised governors of the North-West sub-region to jointly tackle banditry instead of resorting to the individual approach currently being employed.

Mustapha, who noted that no state can single-handedly tackle the problem, also urged the governors to exert more pressure on the Federal Government to assist them in tackling banditry and other crimes in the region.

The former SSG insisted that tackling banditry in the North-West Region requires “well-coordinated, sustainable and simultaneous operations against bandits.”

Mustapha, who is also a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, told Arewa PUNCH in an exclusive interview in Katsina, “I will keep on saying this. Bandits may be large in numbers, but they are not large enough to be a threat to national security if they are well-tackled.

“In the first instance, there is no state in Nigeria that can single-handedly tackle insecurity. It requires the collaborative efforts and support of others, including that of the Federal Government.

“If you could recollect, from January 2017 to 2019, Katsina put in several strategies to tackle insecurity, especially banditry. We put up amnesty, met the bandits’ leaders, banned the sale of fuel in jerry cans, closed cattle markets, and shut down communication in some councils. But you know, these bandits are mobile, highly mobile. When you put up measures that are unfavourable to them in your state, they move to other states from where they will be operating.

“Let the governors come together and put pressure on the Federal Government. With the active support of the President, they should carry out well-coordinated simultaneous operations using both air and ground troops in the region and with the assistance of local guides and local hunters who also know the terrains, these bandits would be tackled.

“We are concerned, and every well-meaning Nigerian should be concerned too. Some schools can not be accessed because of the activities of the bandits, the same thing with markets. Every day, we pray for the end of the problem.”

The former SSG equally called on the Katsina State Government to come up with measures that would alleviate the suffering of the residents given the current economic challenges in the country.

According to him, “In these challenging times, I will expect the state government to come up with measures that would ameliorate the sufferings of residents.

“Yes, it is true that the state recently employed some S-Power teachers, but I will suggest that the government employs additional teachers, 3,000 for secondary schools and 2,000 for primary schools.

“The government should also increase their stipend. In addition, the state should pay the gratuity and pensions of pensioners, maybe within three months. This money will find a way of getting to the general community and, by extension, reduce their sufferings,” Mustapha pointed out.

Culled from Punch Newspaper