Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari on Thursday said that Nigeria’s security forces were not properly armed and are largely overstretched as a result of other security concerns across the nation.
The governor alleged that the situation has become so bad that bandits and kidnappers have infiltrated communities in Katsina and recruiting new members with as low as N5,000 along with drugs and other intoxicants to launch an onslaught against innocent citizens in the state.
Speaking while receiving the police IG, Baba, at the Government House, who was on a courtesy visit, Masari said security personnel was grossly inadequate to tackle the nefarious activities of the bandits and other criminals terrorising the state.
He explained that security personnel, particularly, the police were not enough to police Katsina with an estimated population of about eight million people, while the police have only 3,000 personnel in the state.
In addition, the governor claimed that the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) did not have modern equipment to combat criminality, especially, banditry across the frontline local government areas of the state.
His words: “From my assessment of policemen in the local government areas, I don’t think we have up to 3,000 policemen in the entire state. Let us assume that they are up to 3,000, what it means is that we have a policeman for every 200,000 people. How effective can that policeman be? Then, we come to arms and ammunition, what do the police have?
“And when it comes to modern equipment for combating criminality, how much of it do the police have? And the same thing goes for all other security agencies.
“They are in South-south battling militants; they are in the Southeast battling IPOB; they are in North East battling Boko Haram and ISWAP and insurgents and they are in the North West battling bandits.”
He, however, pointed out that, “Here, the bandits have infiltrated the communities recruiting young men with as low as N5,000 along with drugs and other intoxicants. We must stop the culture of not reporting criminals, because of tribal or family affiliations.”
But the Inspector General of Police, Alkali Usman Baba, has said the force was working with the Federal Ministry of Justice to ensure speedy prosecution of arrested bandits and kidnappers across the country in order to serve as deterrence to other criminals terrorising the nation, even as he hinted at plans by the police to recruit 20,000 more men across the 774 local government areas of Nigeria.
Also, the Zamfara State Police Command said it has rescued five (5) out of the 73 abducted students of the Government Day Secondary School, Kaya in Maradun Local Government Area of the state.
In the same vein, the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), yesterday, said 900 more terrorists surrendered to troops in the North-Eastern part of the country, bringing the number of insurgents that have so far surrendered in the past three weeks to 5, 890.