From John Adams, Minna
Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai has expressed optimism that the banditry across the country, especially in the North, will soon come to an end with the appointments of new Service Chiefs by President Mohammadu Buhari.
To achieve this, the governor advised the new Service Chiefs to build on the foundation of their predecessors in the war against the bandits, saying Nigerian are looking up to them with great expectation.
The governor stated this on Tuesday in Minna in an interview with reporters after meeting with his Niger State counterpart.
‘The problem of banditry and insurgence has been around for a while,’ Governor El-Rufai said. ‘The Governor of Niger State and I have more than two and half years ago presented what we felt were the solutions to banditry activities in our states.
‘My advice to the new Service Chiefs is to look at what has been recommended and what has been done by their predecessors. So, what the new Service Chiefs need to do is to build on the foundation build by their predecessors. There are great expectations from them by Nigerians.
The Kaduna governor expressed the belief that the new Service Chiefs would work with renewed vigour in the war against insurgents and bandits, expressing the hope that ‘things would even get better.’
He said that security forces have been doing very well in combating the bandits, adding that ‘although some people have criticized the outgone Service Chiefs, those of us that worked closely with them know that they performed very well.’
The governor expressed dismay over the activities of some locals acting as informants to bandits, adding that such people would be treated as criminals if caught.
Border communities between Niger and Kaduna state have been the epientre of bandit activities in the last six years, with hundreds of lives lost and thousands of villagers displaced.
The latest attack is coming barely 24 hours before El-Rufai’s visit to Niger, where over 25 people were killed and several others injured in boundary communities between the two states.
