Kaduna Governor Uba Sani (right) with his predecessor, Nasir el-Rufai
Ex-North West governors align with terrorists – Kaduna Gov, Sani
Newly-inaugurated Kaduna Governor, Uba Sani has indicted former governors of the North West region, including his immediate predecessor, Nasir el-Rufai of fratenising with terrorists and bandits alike, an action which he added, has only worsened the security situation in the territory, further jeopardizing efforts at containing the problem.
Kaduna and Zamfara states have become the hotbed of terrorism, banditry and communal violence which has seen loss of scores of lives in recent weeks alone, in the North West region of the country.
Last Monday, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi expressed worry over the spate of what he called ‘very depressing and extremely worrisome’ killings in some parts of the northern region of the country which have now claimed over 120 lives.
According to Obi, the killings recorded in parts of Sokoto, Benue and Zamfara states, recently are part of the ‘continued horrible spate of all forms of criminality, especially visceral bloodletting.’
Decrying the situation in a post made via his Twitter handle (@PeterObi), late Monday, the LP chieftain condemned the ‘wastages of sacred human lives,’ and ‘of peoples who lived among us as family members, relatives and friends.’
Obi appealed the governments to ‘do more to arrest this situation before it deteriorates further,’ adding that ‘Governments and the security agencies must not allow the nation to continue this drift towards anarchy,’ as he commiserated with the affected families of victims.
“The continued horrible spate of all forms of criminality, especially visceral bloodletting and killings, as witnessed recently in Plateau where over 120 people were killed, 50 killed in Sokoto, 31 in Zamfara, and 25 in Benue, are very depressing and extremely worrisome,” he said.
Speaking while featuring as guest on Channel Television, Governor Sani of the Al progressives Congress (APC) indicted his predecessors for adopting ‘extremely wrong’ approach tino managing the internal security matter of their states, a situation, he said, only worsened the current security challenges in the region.
The North West region, which includes, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara has been at the receiving end of rising banditry and terrorism, resulting in kidnapping for ransom, cattle rustling, and violent attacks on communities which refuse to pay levies administer by the terrorists.
“I remember when the Kaduna State Government and some states within the northwest, and even Niger State, they have borders with us, came together to work out a framework to tackle this issue of insecurity.
“We had a joint committee, joint funding, working closely with all the security agencies; the army, the air force and the police.
“But unfortunately, somewhere along the line, the alliance broke down when some state governors decided to start engaging the bandits and the terrorists, sitting with them, wining and dining with them, compensating them, negotiating with them.
“Only two weeks ago, I invited all the governors from the northwest to the Kaduna State Liaison Office in Abuja; I hosted them. Irrespective of party differences, they all came; we sat down together and came out with a kind of policy framework to tackle the problem of insecurity.
“We agreed that we have to have a common approach to the issue and we have to move away from the mistakes made by some previous governors that decided to compromise the operation in the past when they started giving money to the bandits and negotiating with them,” Sani said.
According to him, the northwest governors have now reached an agreement on the need to tackle the problem and reach out to the Niger State governor, Umar Bago, adding that they are also planning to meet President Bola Tinubu as a group.
It would be recalled that Sani’s immediate predecessor and political godfather, Nasir el-Rufai, has been severally accused of feathering the nest of notorious terrorists wreaking havoc in the Southern Kaduna area of the state, where hundreds of people have been in attacks launched by the terrorists.
