Agaju Madugba, Katsina
Senior personnel from the Nigerian Armed Forces and the Nigeria Police arrived Katsina, yesterday, in obedience to President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive.
They were in the state to assess the level of insecurity, following recent killings across a number of communities, carried out by bandits.
Katsina State Deputy Governor, Mannir Yakubu, received the delegation led by Major Gen. B. I. Ahanotu, at the Government House.
“Katsina is in a state of mourning, due to the series of killings by bandits,” the deputy governor lamented, noting that farmers can no longer go to the farms due to activities of bandits.
Yakubu, said that the present administration actually inherited aspects of the insecurity situation in 2015 but that government took certain measures to tackle the problem including an amnesty programme for repentant cattle rustlers and bandits.
“The measures we took started yielding some fruits and peace was restored but it could not be sustained because we share boundaries with non-peaceful states of Zamfara and Kaduna.
We thank president Muhammadu Buhari for responding promptly to our distress call and we are also happy that the Federal Government has pledged to wade into the issue.
‘’This problem has to be tackled and solved now so that our farmers can return to farms more so as the rainy season has already set in. If we do not solve this problem now, there may be food scarcity and the Rugu forest housing the bandits may not be accessible during the rainy season.”, he warned.