COAS identifies amnesty, others as causes

By JOHN NWOKOCHA, Abuja

The Governor of Zamfara State, Dr Dauda Lawal on Wednesday cried out over the escalating insecurity in Zamfara, saying the state is facing worst insecurity challenges and called for a rapid military response.

The governor told the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major General Taoreed Lagbaja and principal officers of the Nigerian Army that his state has become a hotbed for criminality, adding that deaths of innocent citizens are recorded on a daily basis.

“Our people are killed every day". "Hardly will a day pass without people being killed or abducted and attacked. Zamfara has become a home for criminals”, the governor stated. “This is very worrisome to us and me as the number 1 citizen of Zamfara State”, Dauda emphasized. He added, “Our children cannot go to school, which is a serious setback”.

He continues: “If we are able to take care of Zamfara insecurity, 80% of banditry in northern Nigeria would have been dealt with”. If we can tackle criminality in Zamfara, the entire north will be at peace”.

Dauda who was on a courtesy visit to COAS at the Army Headquarters, Abuja with his entourage pleaded for military urgent assistant in curbing incessant insecurity in the state.

The governor expressed confident in the COAS-led Nigerian Army, saying he brought a message of congratulation to Lagbaja on his appointment and pointed out that the appointment of the army boss has given Nigerians hope.

Dauda said as head of government he is saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property in the state.

He therefore called for synergy between the military and Nigeria Police take urgent step in bringing peace to Zamfara state and Nigeria as a whole. He said the Air Force should work in synergy with the army to compliment the ground troop might of the soldiers.

Hear the governor, “I thank you sir that the troops in Zamfara are doing well to secure the state, however we need much more to secure the state and to compliment the efforts of the present troops especially on the issue of banditry facing Zamfara State.

“It is sad to mention that no day passes without someone being kidnapped or killed in the state, without security there would be no development and without security, there will be no farming, our children can’t go to school, Sir I appealed to you to consider not just the manpower but the instruments used to combat these crimes”

“My government is ever ready to assist the security agencies in any capacity to combat the banditry that makes life difficult for people in my state,

I also appeal to you to look into how to bring synergy between the security forces within the state, synergy between the security forces and the civil society to enable flow of information, if we are able to tackle the security in Zamfara state, the whole of north will be more secure”.

In his response, COAS assured him that the Nigerian Army was working on finding a lasting solution to the lingering problem of insecurity in Zamfara state in collaboration with the state government and other critical stakeholders.

The Army boss said the Nigerian Army and the armed forces of Nigeria have risen up to the challenges in Zamfara to combat the security threats with operation HADARIN DAJI, which had been up and running in Zamfara and environs.

Lagbaja said he was delighted to have a good feedback from the people on the ongoing field operations of the military in state from the state government.

He also said that Zamfara has its share of ethnic clashes heightened by the issues of the mining sites, which is also driving insecurity in Zamfara as well as the activities of some non-state actors that have access to small, light arms and illegal weapons. He listed amnesty, farmers’ clashes as major causes of insecurity in the state. “Zamfara insecurity is a mix of so many things”, COAS said.

General Lagbaja said, terrorists regrouped after being granted amnesty despite the effort of the military, and the Federal in Zamfara State, making it difficult to curb the activities criminal elements.

“The issue of the amnesty program needs to be looked into as it has given some criminal elements the leverage to regroup and launch attacks on innocent citizens in communities some communities.

“We also have the issue of the amnesty programme that has been instituted, and which has failed not only in Zamfara but so many other states of the North West.

“So, I think we need to look at this issue of the amnesty programme for the criminal elements have proven to be incorrigible”, he said.

He assured that the Nigerian army is working to synchronise the operations between 2 Division and 8 Division to combat these threats.

“On the issues of combat enablers you talked about, we will look into getting more combat enablers for our troops to be more effective in operations. We will continue to provide needed support to our troops as we are aware that the epicemtre of criminal elements has moved from Maiduguri to Zamfara”, said Lagbaja.

He further assured that he would address the issue around unserviceable platforms of the army which the governor drew his attention to. He said the platforms would become functional and that peace and sanity will be restored to Zamfara.

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