PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with governors of northern states over rising banditry, kidnapping and insurgency in the region, assuring them that he will not fail in his responsibility to secure the country.
Speaking at a meeting with the Northern Governors Forum (NGF), led by the outgoing Chairman, Kashim Shettima of Borno State at the State House, President Buhari said: “The security of the country is on my mind 24 hours of the day. I get daily and weekly situation reports. I have listened to your brief. I will look into your recommendations. I am acutely aware of the situation, but I have learnt more today.”
The President bemoaned the ravaging effect of unchecked corruption in the past on the country’s Armed Forces, saying: “The terrible effects of mismanagement were prevalent, and these are the consequences.”
According to him, “If you follow the efforts we are making within the system, you will see that we have curbed much of the corruption that is there. See the recoveries that we have made–money landed property. We are not going as fast as we want under the system, but we will keep trying to improve it.”
President Buhari promised to increase the frequency of his meetings with security chiefs and keep updating himself.
He also expressed interest in getting reports from governors who have difficult relationships with security heads in their States.
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In their presentations, the governors drew the President’s attention to specific challenges they each faced in their respective States.
They commended the Federal Government’s efforts in curbing Boko Haram terrorism and farmers/herders clashes, which they said had been dealt with.
While noting that normalcy had virtually returned to the North-East, the governors, however, warned that armed banditry was posing a dangerous threat and needed to be tackled with equal swiftness.
Briefing State House correspondents after the meeting, Katsina state Governor, Aminu Masari, said their meeting with the President was based on the resolution of the Northern States Governors Forum at a meeting held in Kaduna 10 days ago.
He said the meeting was over rising insecurity in the region which he said has turned out differently from what it was, particularly in the North East.
The Katsina Governor said: “The issue that brought us to the President is about the rising insecurity in the north-west, north central and northeast. Northeast is known for Boko Haram insurgency, but of recent what was known to be cattle rustling in the north west and some parts of north-central has turned out to be something different from what we had before.
“So, this concern made us come and brief the president so that urgent action would be taken in order to curb this deadly menace of banditry which is gradually graduating into an insurgency. You know the north-west with a vast forest area going to north central and then even going out of Nigeria.
“So, we need to act quickly and decisively so that it doesn’t turn into something else like what we had in the northeast.”
Masari revealed that the President has given his full commitment that something seriously will be done in order to make sure that the menace is curbed.
He affirmed that the governors made suggestions to the president on the way forward but that the suggestions are not for public consumption.
On the traditional ruler, Magajin Gari Daura abducted 26 days ago, the Governor said: “I think the police are working serious and they have made some progress but for obvious reasons, they cannot disclose all that they have done for security reasons but work is going on.”
Also present at the meeting were Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi), Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna) and Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara), Simon Lalong (Plateau), Sani Bello (Niger), Yahaya Bello (Kogi), Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa), and Kashim Shettima (Borno).
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