The Senator who represented Kaduna Central in the 8th National Assembly, Comrade Shehu Sani, and the Coalition of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) in the state have joined other Nigerians in rejecting Governor Nasir El-Rufai’s idea of hiring foreign mercenaries to fight terrorists in the Northwest.
While Senator Shehu Sani said what the Northwest needs to defeat terrorism is a regional security outfit like the Southwest’s Amotekun, the CNPP asked El-Rufai to resign, saying that he has failed to secure the lives and property of the people of his state.
Senator Sani, in an interview with The Nation, said in addition to the regional security outfit which should be funded with the governor’s security votes, they also need to hire a security consultant that would use technology to tackle bandits and terrorists.
Sani said: “We must acknowledge that we are in a desperate situation in Northwest Nigeria, and desperate situation calls for solutions from all angles.
“From every indication, the security establishments have failed to protest us. So, as far as human lives are concerned, whatever that can be done to restore peace and order should be done.
“But I don’t think we need mercenaries to come and fight in the Northwest part of Nigeria. What is needed now is for the Northwestern state governors, including Niger State, to set up a regional security outfit which they will use their security votes to fund, just like the Southwest have done with Amotekun.
“They also need to employ security a consultant that will use technology to tackle these bandits and terrorists. That would be better than bringing mercenaries who are simply going to work for a period of time and leave at the end of the day, because mercenaries cannot work forever in a situation like this.
“But you can grow your own security outfit, fund them, equip them and give them the go ahead to fight these terrorists.
“Also, their mandate must be clear; that they are to confront terrorists and bandits and they have no role politics.
“They should be headed by a retired military or police man who has the expertise to function in such assignments.
“But bringing foreign mercenaries? No. Only the Federal Government can do that; states cannot do that.
“We also need to train our people on how to protect and defend their land.
“I think this is the best way to go about it, because I don’t think the Federal Government will allow states to enter into foreign partnership with any organisation to come and defend our territory, except if we change the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
CNPP in its own statement signed by the Kaduna State chapter Chairman, Alhaji Shehu Abubakar Birningwari, said: “The confession of Governor El-Rufai that he has failed the state and her people leaves him with no other option but resign to allow competent people take the state out of the daily killings El-Rufai has drawn the state into.”
Birningwari said Kaduna has become a state in perpetual mourning as citizens live in perpetual fear of kidnapping for ransom, abduction and killings daily.
In the statement, he explained that “for EL-RUFAI to have said he knows the camps of the terrorists, he knows where they are, he listens to their conversation and knows what they plan, is an indictment of a leader who should have proactively acted on such intelligence to save lives and property.
“The statement by Ekiti State Governor Kayode Fayemi, who is an ally of EL-RUFAI, that ‘first as leaders, they owe the victims and their relatives an apology as these unwarranted acts of violence are becoming too regular and they basically question their collective capacity to govern, is more than a pointer that Governor EL-RUFAI is an abysmal failure and resignation is his only option.
“The unity of voice and stand of Christian Association of Nigeria CAN and Council of Imams and Ulamas Kaduna State chapters that ‘on the contrary, the government and her intelligence gathering happens to be more about settling scores with perceived foes’ and ‘the government must be held responsible for every single soul that is lost” are indictments of Governor El-Rufai.”
While sympathising with the families of those who lost loved ones in various attacks across the state and beyond, Abubakar Birningwari prays for quick recovery of those injured, calling on the government to wake up from its slumber and rescue those in captivity.