Some traditional rulers in President Muhammadu Buhari’s home of state of Katsina have questions to answer over the spike in bandit attacks in the state.
The Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu stated this on Monday during an appearance on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme, The Punch reported.
“It is not that we are making direct accusations on anyone but it is also true that even in the President’s native state of Katsina, some traditional rulers have been found complicit in collaboration with the bandits to harm their own people.
“In neighbouring Zamfara, emirs and district heads, quite a number of them have been swept out of office. The thing is there are beneficiaries of whatever rotten system you have,” the presidential aide was quoted to have said.
He added, “At some point, the Nigerian Air Force had to put a number of aircraft in Katsina, they are still there. In the early part of that operation attacking Zamfara which then was the epicentre.
“They realised that once aircraft took off from Katsina airport, before it got to Zamfara for operation, telephone calls would have been made and targets would have disappeared. In the end, we were forced to be flying from distant places like Kaduna and Kano in order to undertake operations in Zamfara.
“Some people see President Buhari and think he has all the solutions. No. All of us as citizens have a duty to the nation to provide information to our armed forces.”
Criticism of President Muhammadu Buhari has increased in recent times over his failure to end banditry in the North West, and insurgency in the North East.
Last week, some protesters in Buhari’s home state burnt photos of the president and the state governor, Aminu Masari for failing to bring an end to the constant bandit attacks.