Noah Ebije, Kaduna
 
Aliyu Abubakar is the chairman, Tsafe council of Zamfara State as well as the national Vice President of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria  (ALGON).
 In this interview, Abubakar said playing politics with security challenges in Zamfara amounts to political immaturity.
Your state is one of the states in the country where the issues of kidnapping, killings and cattle rustling appear to be worst, what’s the situation report there so far?
Security challenges in Nigeria is a national phenomenon, and one of the reasons Zamfara state faces such challenges is because of its vast land and forest. That is what the terrorists prefer. We have lost so many lives and resources through such incidences, but the state government is doing its best to tackle the challenges. The state government has spent huge amount of money in its quest to bring the situation under control. The huge amount spent in security by the state government would have done great visible projects in the state if channelled to other developmental projects. But the issue of security is of equal importance as the governor is the chief security officer in the state.
Roads in Zamfara state were in very bad condition before the coming of this administration, but we can now boast of very passable and standardised new roads of more than 5000km in Zamfara state courtesy of Governor Abdul Aziz Yari. This helps the security agencies in the state to respond immediately they are alerted on any security challenge within a short period of time, no matter how remote the place is.
But what you are now saying goes contrary to the view of the senator representing your zone, Senator Kabiru Marafa. He said there is dereliction of duty from the side of the governor. He specifically alleged that the governor, his deputy and the state commissioner of police know the perpetrators of these evil acts, but shielding them from arrest. What is your take?
I want the senate to ask him to elaborate more on what he meant by the state governor, his deputy and the CP knowing those bandits. What did he mean by saying that? Did he mean that they collaborate to carry out the acts? Let me ask him: is Zamfara the only state facing security challenges in the country? It happens in Plateau, Taraba, Kaduna Adamawa and very recently Benue, does that mean the governors there know the perpetrators?  First of all the senator should know that, as a senator, he is one of the leaders of the state and a senator of the federal republic, he should have used his position to invite the security chiefs to the senate to explain the situation in Zamfara.  We, the politicians, should have the fear of Allah in all our dealings, as we shall account for that on the Day of Judgement.
Are you now debunking what the senator said before the National Assembly?
What will the governor gain by deliberately ignoring killings of innocent citizens in his state? The challenges started in 2010 and the governor was voted into office in 2011 alongside Senator Kabiru Marafa. For Senator Marafa to politicise security issue is the highest level of political immaturity and this will not fetch him ticket. Senator Marafa should know that the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had used similar method for campaign against the incumbent, including himself in 2015 general elections. What happened? They didn’t succeed. Though, this is his method whenever he needs something politically. We have seen that too when he was fighting the senate president, Bukola Saraki, but when a juicy committee was given to him, he kept mute. I think Zamfara State is not National Assembly.
I remembered that Marafa was invited by the state governor alongside all members of the National Assembly from Zamfara State and all the heads of security agencies in the state to discuss the issue. He was there and everything was discussed in his presence. Even if Senator Marafa had personal issues with the governor, he shouldn’t have used it as a threat to his administration or as a way of campaign for himself to get governorship ticket. He should have used facts to convince his colleagues in the National Assembly or Nigerians that the state governor is doing nothing to tackle insecurity in his state.
As the chief security officer of Tsafe council, which happens to be the local government Senator Kabiru Marafa, comes from, did he ever call you to ask for situation report on security challenges there?
Senator Marafa has never called me for once to find out the true situation of things. And I even asked the DPO that he claimed to have called and advised him not to come to his town, ‘Yandoto’ because of the security condition in the area, the DPO said nothing like that took place between them. What I observe is that Senator Marafa has a hidden agenda on why he has decided to politicise this security issue. But this would not augur well for him and the innocent people he claimed to be representing.
But he claimed that the state government is not doing enough to curb the situation?
This is not true. If the state government is not doing enough, what do you think could have happened by now? As I told you, constitutionally, the state government has its limit as far as security is concerned. As a chief security officer in the state, all the security apparatus are not under him, state government role is to work hand- in- hand with the security and/ to assist them with what they need to facilitate their operations. The state governor has provided the security agencies in the state with all the necessary demands they requested from him. In fact, there was a time in our presence, including Senator Kabiru Marafa together with traditional rulers in the state, when the governor briefed us concerning what the state government had been doing for the security in the state, the huge amount of money the state government spent on security, but there was no progress.
He was also querying all the security agencies leaderships present if there was any time he reduced a penny out of their submissions of request to him. He said he approves whatever request they brought to him without delay and without reducing whatever was proposed.

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