The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje says all hands must be on deck to address security challenges bedevilling the nation.
Speaking to State House Correspondents on Friday after he met behind closed doors with President Muhammadu Buhari, the Governor said leaders at all levels need support to handle the menace.
“First of all, I came to see Mr. President and briefed him on the security situation in Kano. There are challenges all over the country that are unfortunate, but we believe the President is doing his best with other stakeholders in order to curtail the situation.
“Almost everybody needs the helping hand, especially Governors and Chairmen of local governments. We have observed that the security situation now, our forests the major problems because they accommodate bandits, they accommodate terrorist they accommodate armed robbers and they accommodate those who are criminals.”
Ganduje highlighted some of the measures taken by Kano State to address the problem saying:
“In Kano State we have taken some measures. We have two large forests, the Falgore forest, which is bordering Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi and also not far away from Plateau. In that forest, we established a military training ground in conjunction with the Army. And there’s a lot of military training going on in that forest using the facilities that we have provided.
“So, that is helping to checkmate the activities of bandits in that forest and I have requested Mr President to also establish another institution within that forest and that forest will be liberated completely.”
Use of Technology
He said the State is also leveraging technology to complement the effort of all security agencies, in order to contain the situation.
“Also, we have introduced technology within the forest, from the office of the DSS in Kano and the Office of the Commissioner of Police and even from my office; we are able to monitor what is happening in that forest. And there’s communication, effective communication between the DSS and the police and those who are managing the forest; the checkpoints and various places that security agencies are manning the place.
“Also community policing, we are giving it a very, very important agenda. The traditional rulers right from the amas, district heads, village heads, ward heads, Imams and major stakeholders; we are holding regular meetings and the security agencies get a lot of information for the local people that are helping Kano state a lot.
“Also in Kano metropolitan where we have eight mega local governments, we are establishing some technology. In particular, we’re improving the network system within metropolitan Kano. We’re laying over 100 kilometres of optic fibre within the Kano metropolitan area.
“So that CCTV cameras will be more effective so that we can manage the whole mega city in terms of security and also in terms of network improvement. We have also constituted what we call an enlarged Security Committee. Because limiting it to the Air Force, Army, Police, DSS Civil Defence, I think the security network in terms of the flow of information, requires much more than that,” he explained.
Ganduje also gave an insight into what the State is doing to reduce clashes between farmers and herders.
“In that forest, we have provided houses and we are still providing housing when constructing them, but in the meantime, we have provided industrial boreholes, we have trained their youth into artificial insemination. We are constructing veterinary clinics, schools for their children,” he added.
PIAK
