Senator Shehu Sani
FORMER senator and rights activist, Shehu Sani who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly has faulted the Presidency’s excuses on unending security challenges in Southern Kaduna which has made the environment a no-go area.
The former lawmaker said it is unfortunate that when the people are helplessly looking up to the military for safety and protection, the same military are looking up to the people for security of lives in the area.
“The people are expecting the military to end insurgency and banditry and the military are expecting the people to end insurgency and banditry, violence and expectancy”, Sani stated on his social media handle.
The Presidency had on Tuesday in a statement released by Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media & Publicity stated that the problem of insecurity in Southern Kaduna State is more complicated than many people could see and added that the people should strive to provide timely report to security operatives.
“From available records, Southern Kaduna enjoys comprehensive security deployments, including the Army, Special Forces of both the Army and the Air Force, surveillance aircraft by the Air Force and mobile police units that are on the ground on a 24-hour basis to forestall criminality and keep the peace.
“But unlike other parts of the country, the problem of Southern Kaduna is more complicated than many critics are ready to acknowledge and understand.
“From available security records, the problem in Southern Kaduna is an evil combination of politically-motivated banditry, revenge killings and mutual violence by criminal gangs acting on ethnic and religious grounds.
“It is a situation in which one criminal group will kill a member of another criminal group out of ethnic and religious motivations which in turn leads to the eruption of revenge and counter-revenge, thereby making the job of the security personnel deployed to protect lives more difficult”, Shehu stated.
He added that the Presidency appeals to the people against taking the law into their own hands which makes the job of security personnel more difficult. Instead, they should report any security breach or threat to peace to the law enforcement agencies.
“We note that revenge and counter-revenge only creates a circle of violence, thereby making everyone else unsafe, especially innocent people.
“What is required is for the local authorities to radically improve their intelligence capabilities so that security agencies will be alerted in a timely manner to enable them forestall any planned attacks”, he stated.
The Presidency in the statement also condemned the recent attacks by bandits in Igali, Birnin Gwari and Giwa local government areas of the State while urging security agencies to intensify their response.