The Brigade Commander of the Nigerian Army’s Katsina 17 Brigade, Brigadier General Emmanuel Emeka, has decried the alarming rate at which arms are smuggled into the country through Niger borders on a daily basis.
Emeka, who accompanied the Comptroller General, Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Muhammad Babandede, alongside other heads of security agencies in the state to the Katsina Emir’s palace disclosed this on Tuesday.
He equally reiterated the call made by the NIS chief for synergy among the security agencies in the state in order to defeat the hoodlums terrorising the state.
In the same manner, he affirmed that the security agencies cannot solve the problem alone. They need the rural chiefs with them to win the war against the notorious criminals. He advocates for more power to be delegated to the traditional rulers.
“I want to refer back to what he (CG NIS) has said we cannot do individually. It is only a synergy of the security forces that we are having that can bring the challenges we are having to a conclusive end.
“The contemporary security challenges we are having right now is not what the military or security agencies can do alone without the traditional institutions and the leaders at the grassroot. If we want to get it right, we must recognize them and give them that power and position to be able to cope with this menace.
“I am not sure there’s any day we don’t have at least one arm coming into the country from Niger. On a daily basis, people come into the state with arms.
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“It’s when we’re able to curb that aspect that we will be able to solve this crisis and the people that can do that for us are those from the grassroot.
“I don’t want to believe there is any community where a stranger would come and stay and those in the community would not know the person.
“It’s not a coincidence that the CGI has come here today to point out the same problems we have been facing. I want to stand on that same ground to appeal that the traditional rulers particularly at the villages and the local areas are the ones that can help us because the information we get from them is key.
“The kind of operations we are going into now is driven by intelligence and even the DSS cannot do as much for us as what the village heads will be able to do for us.
“So I stand on that to appeal to them to work with us. The state government has put in place details that we are going to be working with the vigilantes and we have really confirmed the risk coming and if we don’t do this on time it will be difficult for farmers to go to their farms.” General Emeka said
“I want to say Katsina is unique and lucky as we have been working together with the various security agencies and most importantly, we have a Governor that genuinely wants to bring this problem to an end.”
Recently he just established a joint communication and centre for the various security agencies. Training on the objectives or the center is presently ongoing and hopefully by next week it will take full force.
He equally thanked the Emir for giving them a listening ear whenever they call upon him.
“I want to thank his Royal Highness for his open door Policies and his listening ears. Whenever we come to him he is always available to receive us and to give us his guidance and directions.” Emeka said.
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