•Governor Dikko-Radda of Katsina State
Bandits terrorising Katsina State live among residents, Governor Dikko Radda has said.
“They are neither strangers nor outsiders. These are not alien criminals. They are from among us, we know their fathers and their grandfathers. That is why local solutions like the community watch corps are effective. They understand the terrain and the people.”
He canvassed state police as panacea to the insecurity in the Northwest state, reports The Nation.
The governor who spoke on a television programme, explained that insecurity remained a major obstacle to meaningful development in the Northwest state.
Echoing the call by other governor’s call for constitutional reforms to enable state policing, Radda noted the army and the police operate independently of governors, who serve as security chiefs in their states of deployment.
The governor, who lamented the limitations of working with federal security agencies that are not directly accountable to the state government, said: “If you ask a federal security unit to move and they refuse, there is nothing you can do. But, if you are their employer and you can take punitive action, it’s a different story.”
On what his administration is doing to bolster security of lives and properties, he said: “Our position in Katsina State is very clear – we need state police. When I came in, we had to create the Katsina Community Watch Corps because conventional security agencies were overstretched and under-resourced.
“These boys know the terrain better, they know those people better. Most of the perpetrators of this banditry are from our own area. They are not aliens – more than 90 per cent of them; we know their fathers; their grandfathers and they are living with us.”
Restating the importance of involving locals in the fight against insurgents, Radda said: “This situation requires local involvement and that was why we created this outfit – that people at the local level can provide us with information.
“They can lead the fight to the enclaves of the bandits because they know the terrain better, and they can fish out informants living among us, giving information to the bandits and those that provide logistic support to the bandits.
“Without unbundling that, you would not be able to fight insecurity successfully.”
Renewing the call for the establishment of state police as the only viable solution to insecurity, Radda expressed firm support for the proposal, which had been endorsed by governors of all the 36 states at the National Economic Council (NEC).
According to the governor, the inability to arm local security operatives with superior weapons has continued to hamper efforts in defeating banditry and restoring peace.
“If our boys could have been allowed to use AK-47s, banditry in the state could have become history two years ago.
“But the law does not allow that. We are limited to using pump-action rifles while the bandits wield more sophisticated arms.”
According to him, 33 state governors have submitted their support for the creation of state police to the NEC. He expressed confidence that ongoing constitutional amendment by the National Assembly would get the required support from state assemblies.
Radda said: “We believe if we push this through the constitutional amendment, it’s going to scale through.
“About 33 governors have indicated interest and I believe we can get the two-thirds majority required at the state level.”
Acknowledging earlier reservations about the idea of state police, particularly concerns about potential abuse by state governors, the governor maintained that Nigeria’s evolving democratic culture has rendered those fears largely obsolete.
He said: “Initially, I also believed that governors might misuse state police for political purposes. But after becoming governor and facing the reality of insecurity, I changed my position.
“Even the federal government controls the police and military today, yet, we saw a sitting president lose an election. Nigeria’s democracy is maturing.”
