We Can Solve Banditry If We Stopped The Blame Game, Masari Tells North-West Govs

Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Masari, has advised governors from the North-West to stop the blame game and forge a common front to tackle cases of banditry bedevilling the region.

He also called on other stakeholders to accept their responsibility in fighting banditry and root out insecurity plaguing the region.

Masari spoke in Abuja 0n Thursday when a delegation of the North-Western Governor’s Forum paid a condolence visit to Aliyu Wamakko, the Senator representing Sokoto north.

The visit followed the brutal killing of over 23 travellers who were burnt to death when a bus was attacked by bandits in Gidan Bawa village in Isa LGA of the state on Monday.
“We were in Sokoto State earlier to sympathise with the government and immediate families of those who were brutally killed in the name of banditry,” Masari said.

He noted that, “The issue of banditry in north-western part of the country is not beyond us. We know the problem and the solutions are something that we as a people are capable of doing.

“This is provided that all of us take responsibility and stop the blame game.

“Banditry, especially our own in the north-western part of the country can easily be dealt with if all hands are put on deck.

“This is because it has no religious colouration, no ethnic colouration, it is not ideological. It is simply pure criminality.”

He called for improved technology for the security agents to fight crime, acknowledging that the police have limitations in fighting insecurity.

“We need to know where the bandits are recruited, at what price are they recruited, all these are issues that are very well known to us,” he said.

Kano State governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, who also spoke during the visit said blaming each other would not bring any solution to the security challenge.

“We have seen a lot in this country. The issue started with cattle rustling that looked so simple and so indigenous. We did not even investigate it to find out what was its root course,” Ganduje said.

“Cattle rustling has graduated to kidnapping, kidnapping graduated to banditry while we are fighting Boko Haram on the other side.

“We have to break that cycle. Our first challenge is how we reclaim our forests without being affected by the bandits.

“There must be planning, there must be data, there must be commitment, there must be timeline for whatever we are going to do. How far have we involved communities?” he asked.

“We must go back to the drawing board. The communities need to be involved, there must be community policing.”

Appreciating the delegation for the visit, Wamakko said the approach to the fight against banditry should be modified.

“The peaceful approach we are giving to security matters will not solve the problem. The fight cannot be done by merely repelling alone, we have to be on the offensive,” he said.

“We have spoken enough. What we are to do is to start implementing. No amount of money can solve this problem until there is determination to take the right and proper action.

“The federal government and national assembly have made enough provision in the 2021 budget to security agencies to overcome these challenges nationwide.”