By Bolaji Ogundele, Abuja

The Nasarawa State governor, Abdulahi Sule, has lamented the effect of the ongoing fight against bandits and other criminal elements in the Northeast and Northwest on the security situation in his state.

Governor Sule, who spoke on the infestation of Nasarawa hilly terrains by fleeing bandits from other northern states, addressed State House Correspondents after a briefing President Muhammadu Buhari, who invited him to speak on two issues, one of which he said was on security.

According to the governor, the state government, in synergy with the various security agencies present in the state, as well as local hunters and vigilante groups, had however been successful in making the state conducive for the migrating hoodlums.

Responding to questions from correspondents, the governor noted that the criminal elements troubling the state are aliens to the state, a factor which he said had made the fight against them easier as the inclusion of local hunters and vigilante groups, those whom he noted are very familiar with the terrains, very helpful.

“The hunters, as well as the vigilante groups in Nasarawa State are able to follow because they are very familiar with the places. The criminals in Nasarawa State are new, they are not from Nasarawa State, so as a result of that our own people are more familiar with the ground and are able to follow where they are.

“We have some of the bandits that were dislodged from the Northwest and the Northeast and they found some of these hilly places, in Nasarawa State we have a lot of rocky places and they’ve found some of those places comfortable so they moved to those locations and as a result of that you know we followed up to ensure that we tracked them based on what they do and there are people who actually go on the way to the villages and the cities and sometimes kidnapped people and we follow them and we also have armed robbers. We have all the three in Nasarawa.

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“By the grace of God we have a very good Police Commissioner in Nasarawa, excellent Director of DSS and a fantastic Director for Civil Defense and they all work together, along with all the military installations that we have. We have about three military installations now; we have the 177 in Keffi, we have the Special Forces and then we have the Wild Stroke, all of them work together in synergy and we are able to make sure they help us in taking care of most of these criminals,” the governor said.

The governor, however, thanked the federal government for the support in the area of addressing insecurity, saying the reason he was invited was to brief President Buhari on the recently held by-election and the security situation in the state.

“I came to brief the President on two areas; the area of security in our State and then the first post-COVID 19 election that we just had in Nasarawa State.

“We looked at the issue that you must have been hearing, about which has to do with our security challenges, of kidnappings and some killings that have taken place, where one of the traditional rulers was recently killed. I had to express great appreciation to the President, for accepting to set up the third Mobile Police training college in Nasarawa State.

“We only have two presently in the country, one in Gwoza, Borno State and another in Osun State and now we have the third one in Nasarawa State and it is set up at a place where is very hilly, where was hitherto used by kidnappers and armed robbers so at Gwoza they call it the desert training, in Osun they call it forest training and the one in Nasarawa they call it jungle hill training. The project has been completed and we inaugurated it last week.

“I also used the visit to express our appreciation to the President for the military super camps that he agreed to set up in Nasarawa and both of them have been established and also the Airforce Special Forces in Lafia and the military Special Forces in Doma.”

The Governor revealed that the State government has been giving the needed support to the military and other security agencies operating in the state.

“We are doing a lot when it comes to that. All the military or police formations that are sent to Nasarawa State, we play a key role in the allocation of the land and building of the infrastructure. We also support a lot with the needed logistics to make sure that they are well established.

“We also have a special relationship with them, especially the Police, where we have now established community policing in Nasarawa State and we have also been able to use our vigilante groups to track criminals in collaboration with the security agencies, especially when kidnappings take place because the vigilantes already know the terrain so they assist in rescuing kidnap victims.

“I am very happy to inform you that even those who killed the traditional ruler were arrested last week. So continuously we support all the security agencies because security for us in Nasarawa State is paramount because we are having many investors who can only succeed if there is security,” he said.