Aminu Masari Governor of Katsina State Governor, has lamented that bandits are now recruiting young men with as low as N5,000 along with drugs and other intoxicants.
Masari added that the Nigerian Police Force does not have adequate number of personnel to effectively police the state with a population of about eight million people.
Masari spoke on Thursday when the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, visited the Government House on a courtesy call to President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state.
The governor said, “Katsina State has a population of about eight million people and how many policemen do we have in Katsina State? From my assessment of policemen in the local government areas, I don’t think we have up to 3,000 policemen in the entire state.
“Let us assume that they are up to 3,000, what it means is that we have a policeman for every 200,000 people. How effective can that policeman be? Then we come to arms and ammunition, what do the police have?
“And when it comes to modern equipment for combating criminality, how much of it do the police have? And the same thing goes for all other security agencies. They are in South-South battling militants; they are in the South-East battling IPOB, they are in North-East battling Boko Haram and ISWAP and insurgents and they are in the North-West battling bandits.
“Here, the bandits have infiltrated the communities recruiting young men with as low as N5,000 along with drugs and other intoxicants. We must stop the culture of not reporting criminals because of tribal or family affiliations.”
Katsina, despite being Buhari’s home state, has witnessed sporadic attacks by bandits and kidnappers that have claimed the lives of many.
Over 1000 people have been reportedly killed by the gunmen in Jibia, Kankara, Dutsinma, Musawa, Danmusa and Safana Local Government Areas of the state in the last five months.
On December 11, 2020, some bandits kidnapped 344 students of Government Science Secondary School, Kankara. They were released about a week later.
Also on December 19, 84 Islamiyya students of Hizburrahim Islamiyya in Mahuta village, Dandume Local Government Area of the state were abducted but rescued shortly after.
Recently, some members of the State House of Assembly lawmakers shed tears for the Buhari-led government at a plenary while discussing the deterioration of insecurity under the present regime.
