Governors worried over attacks on colleagues ― Ganduje

The governor of Kano State, Abdulahi Ganduje, has said that state chief executives are worried over the recent spate of attacks on their colleagues.

He said if governors could be targeted for attacks despite the level of security around them, the situation of the ordinary Nigerian is better imagined.

Fielding questions from correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja, on Monday, he, however, pointed out that the present administration is doing all that is necessary to improve security in the country.

Ganduje spoke against the recent attacks, on Governor Sam Ortom of Benue state, by suspected herders; and before that, Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state, by Boko Haram as well as Governor Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State, by suspected political thugs.

He described the trend as unfortunate.

Ganduje was, however, hopeful that with the recent appointment of new service chiefs as well as President Buhari’s resolve to deal with insecurity, the situation would improve.

The governor stated: “I think it’s unfortunate, but I believe with the appointment of new service chiefs, the new strategy will be developed and I think Mr President has always been serious on this issue but is rather unfortunate.

“Not only governors being attacked, anybody who is attacked in Nigeria, one should be worried because life is life.

“Certainly, we are worried because a governor is supposed to have some security with him, let alone of an ordinary man who has no security.

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“So, you can see how serious the situation is. It’s unfortunate, but we believe will come over it.”

On his mission to the presidential villa, he explained that the Kano State government is constructing a world-class three-level road interchange, to be named after President Buhari, in appreciation of his commitment to Kano’s infrastructure development.

He said the interchange, consisting of flyover, bridge and underpass, which is sited within Metropolitan Kano, became necessary because of the fast-growing population of the city, a situation brought about by the insecurity in the northern regions of the country.

According to him, Kano has become the safest place in the north as a result of various investments of his administration into security.

He stated: “All I know as of today Kano is the most peaceful state in the federation and this is not by chance, there must be some security measures that we have taken, like full cooperation among the security agencies in Kano State.

“We introduced the command and control centre; the CCTV where we are viewing the whole Metropolitan Kano, we have the most powerful tracker vehicle, equipment in Kano.

“Falgore Forest where bandits usually inhabit, we said no, not in Kano state. We established a military training ground in Falgore Forest and therefore bandits cannot inhabit it.

“Our border with Kaduna, we have a forest and where we are establishing a ruga programme, we discussed with nomadic Fulani, they agreed to be settled there. In fact, other Fulani are even coming.

“In conjunction with Islamic Bank, we are building a dam, artificial insemination centre, veterinary clinic, a school for their children and all that it takes to form a settlement, we are doing that.

“We also established a security training institute where we are training our young men and women for community policing. Even yesterday, I graduated 200, while 500 are under training there, with the advice of the security agencies in Kano.

“So, all these efforts are in order to keep Kano in peace. Apart from other policies in education, free and compulsory education, reforming the Almajiri system, what we have done to the health sector, and so many other things. But this one is left for the people to say.”

On the planned interchange, he said: “I commissioned a group of engineers who visited all the world capitals, the most important ones, and came up with a design. So, this design is one of the world’s most interesting designs, interchange design in Kano state now when completed.

“So, it’s not an issue of Nigeria or issue of Africa, I beat my chest to tell you that it is a blend of interchanges from different parts of the world, in order to ease traffic.

“Kano is a megacity, because of securities situation many people are coming into Kano now, traffic is increasing, buildings are increasing because people from the northeast, people from even northwest are coming to settle in Kano. So, the volume of traffic is increasing.

“We revised the master plan of Kano state and all those areas where we have holdups we either build underpass or we build a bridge, and now we have resorted to putting the three together in one place; that is a flyover, bridge, and underpass, all at one point so that there will not be any traffic jam.”

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE

Governors worried over attacks