Suspected political thugs disrupted a security meeting shortly after it began in Katsina on Tuesday.

The meeting, convened under the auspices of Katsina Security Community Initiative, mobilized experts from different fields including retired army high ranking officers, retired police officers, and other experts in the security circle as well as academic and opinion leaders to rub minds and chart a way out of the security problem in the state.

However, problem started when the convener, Dr. Bashir Kurfi, was giving an overview of the meeting where he was analyzing the security situation in the state, saying some of the LGAs were more or less shutdown, economic activities including farming and animal rearing significantly disrupted and schools shut down, and in many cases occupied bandits.

While he was trying to highlight some of the implications of the situation for the future of the state, one of the disruptors stood up and interrupted by saying the state government is doing everything to address the security problem in the state, describing such remarks by the convener as anti-government, which they would not allow to continue.

They accused the conveners of failing to do something similar during the administration of former Governor Bello Masari, levelling them as the enemies of the present administration.

No sooner than he was asked to wait for the time to take general comments, other disruptors sprang up and the scene turned chaotic, as they began to throw chairs around and even attacked some journalists who were covering the event.

Some of the thugs were stationed within and outside the premises of the event, with some of them displaying dangerous knives, threatening to deal with anyone who is the “enemy of the governor”.

We’ll continue no matter what….

However, addressing members of the press at a different location after the protesters had successfully dispersed the gathering, conveners of the event said they would go ahead with the meeting no matter what.

They pointed an accusing finger at the government for the action of the thugs, saying the protesters were not only known to be with the government but they have also made confessional statements that they were doing it for the government.

The convener expressed surprise that the government could do such a thing when they were not only informed but they were part of the meeting right from the time it started in Abuja.

“The whole idea of the meeting was to link up with communities on how best we can address this problem of bloodshed in our state. We are not here to castigate the government or whoever, but the fact of the matter is that we as elite in the state, we have a responsibility to talk on something which we feel will affect the lives of our people, and that is exactly what we are after.

“We had the first meeting in Abuja and we informed the governor, where we asked him to send his representatives, and about ten local government chairmen, led by the state ALGON Chairman, were there on behalf of the government.

“We had our second meeting in Kaduna, these same local government chairmen were there and two of them were co-opted as members of the secretariat for whatever report that we will give at the end. Unfortunately, these same chairmen were here with us in Katsina and when this incident happened, one of them was seen meeting with those thugs in the mosque within the premises, after which he gave them some money to share,” he said.

When contacted for government’s reaction, the State Commissioner of Information and Culture, Dr. Bala Salisu Zango, saidhe was not aware of the event entirely not to talk of the alleged disruption, hence he could not comment on what he had no knowledge of.

A message send to the Governor’s DG Media, Maiwada Dammallam, was not replied to as at the time of filing this report. (Daily Trust)

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