Police deploy 877 personnel to banditry prone areas ― Zamfara CP

The Zamfara State police command has disclosed that 877 combined and special forces personnel have been deployed to banditry prone areas as the state Commissioner of Police, Usman Nagoggo has stated that Zamfara State’s security is non-negotiable.

Speaking during a press conference held today at the command headquarters in Gusau, CP Usman Nagogo revealed that security agencies are working tirelessly for the safety of every citizen in the state.

“On 12 September 2020, the police, on intelligent and credible information, got wind that certain individuals are holding a meeting with some leaders of repentant bandits with a view to entice them with monetary and other incentives in order to go back to the forest and return to the dark days”.

According to him, it is a well-known fact that the steps taken by the state government and security agents have yielded positive impact in curtailing act of kidnapping, cattle rustling and banditry in the state for the past one year.

“No responsible security architecture will fold its arms and wait until a carnage is meted to the citizen of the state before they act.

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Thus, the arrest of Alhaji Habu Moh’d Dantabawa and 17 others were intelligent driven and proactive measures were taken by the Police to curtail any act of banditry and related criminality in the state”.

The police commissioner, however, said miscreants and people who don’t mean well for the good people of the state acted in a manner that was not only inimical to the peace of Zamfara but also displayed an act of rascality with its attendant consequences by invading the Police Command Headquarters on 13 September 2020.

“This was done to test the patient and resolve of the Police in handling matters bordering on security and fundamental human rights of the citizens”.

He lamented that the implication of the invasion of Police Headquarters was to set an example of an unprecedented uncivilized manner of expressing perceived grievances.

“The Police were patient and persuasive to end this barbaric act by using alternative dispute resolution to end the invasion of the Police Headquarters in the name of protest”.

“Let me sound a note of warning that any attempt to display this kind of uncivilized behaviour in the Police headquarters or anywhere in the state will be dealt with squarely according to the law of the land”, CP warned.

CP Nagoggo recalled that the Police and other security agents started to approach the issue of security by using the carrot and stick approach in handling the issue of protracted insecurity in the state.

“The resultant effect of this approach, for the first time, hundreds of captives were released, hundreds of sophisticated weapons were voluntarily surrendered by bandits and hundreds of locally made weapons were retrieved from local militia group (Yansakai)”.

He maintained that the state government recently requested for more mobile police who are not only used along with the Military to curtail the activities of unrepentant bandits but were also stationed in different strategic places in the state.

“As I am talking to you now, we have combined forces of well-armed 877 personnel stationed at strategic locations across the state as well as 100 Special Forces being used in case of any threat”.

“There are also other hundreds of personnel that are in line to be deployed to other vulnerable areas in the state”.

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE