Masari to Islamic clerics: Sensitise your members on community-driven security

By Augustine Okezie, Katsina

Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State, yesterday, called on Islamic clerics in the state to partner with the state government in sensitising their members on the new three-tier community-driven security arrangement designed to tackle banditry.

Governor Masari, who made the call in Katsina during a two-day security awareness seminar for Jumma’at Mosque Imams and other Islamic religious leaders in the state, with the theme, “Combating Insecurity through Da’awa,” said several security meetings and strategic policies have been adopted by the state government, which have started yielding the needed results.

He charged the clerics to instigate communal participation in security arrangements within their localities rather than waiting for security operatives, whose population, he noted, is grossly disproportionate to the 7.8 million population of Katsina State.

He said, “The setting up of the 3-tier security arrangement should be seen as grassroots approach by the state government, by engaging the usual traditional and religious  methods of enforcing discipline and good conduct amongst the populace.’’

“We must go back to our tested traditional and religious method of enforcing security. The situation got degenerated because of the failure of the religious leaders to play their assigned roles of enforcing discipline and good conduct amongst members.”

The Emir of Katsina, Alhaji Abdulmumin Kabir Usman, also warned the clerics that failure to actively sensitise their members on the growing security challenges in the state may further limit activities, especially farming, religious freedom and movements.

While calling for continued prayer and support to the government in tackling insecurity, the monarch blamed the insatiable quest for wealth amongst the youths as responsible for their engagement in crimes.

Earlier, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Security, Alhaji Ahmad Katsina, said the seminar was organised to challenge the clerics to mobilise their members to partner with the state government in tackling the growing insecurity in the state.