Anthony Iwuoma
The Governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, has explained how his government has been able to keep bandits away from Kano State.
Ganduje spoke at the State House in Abuja after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
The governor claimed that Kano remains Nigeria’s safest state because of the measures his government has put in place to secure the state.
“All what I know as of today is that Kano is the most peaceful state in the federation and this is not by chance, there must be some security measures that we have taken, like full cooperation among the security agencies in Kano State. We introduced the command and control centre; the CCTV where we are viewing the whole Metropolitan Kano, we have the most powerful tracker vehicle, equipment in Kano,”he said.
Continuing, the governor added: “Falgore Forest where bandits usually inhabit, we said no, not in Kano State. We established a military training ground in Falgore Forest and therefore bandits cannot inhabit it. Our border with Kaduna, we have a forest and where we are establishing ruga programme, we discussed with nomadic Fulani, they agreed to be settled there. In fact, other Fulani are even coming.
“In conjunction with Islamic Bank, we’re building dam, artificial insemination centre, veterinary clinic, school for their children and all what it takes to form a settlement, we’re doing that.
“We also established a security training institute where we are training our young men and women for community policing, even yesterday, I graduated graduated 200, whilwy 500 are under training there, with the advice of the security agencies in Kano.
“So all these efforts are in order to keep Kano in the peace, apart from other policies in education, free and compulsory education, reforming the Almajiri system, what we have done to the health sector, and so many other things. But this one is left for the people to say”, he said.
Speaking on the assassination attempt on the life of Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, Ganduje expressed worry. He wondered what the fate of the ordinary citizen could be of a governor with security detail could be so attacked.
He said: “I think it’s unfortunate, but I believe with appointment of new service chiefs, new strategy will be developed and I think Mr. President has always been serious on this issue, but is rather unfortunate.
“Not only governors being attacked, anybody who is attacked in Nigeria, one should be worried because life is life. Certainly we’re worried because a governor is supposed to have some security with him, let alone of an ordinary man who has no security.
“So you can see how serious the situation is. It’s unfortunate, but we believe will come over it.”
Continuing, the governor added: “Falgore Forest where bandits usually inhabit, we said no, not in Kano State. We established a military training ground in Falgore Forest and therefore bandits cannot inhabit it. Our border with Kaduna, we have a forest and where we are establishing ruga programme, we discussed with nomadic Fulani, they agreed to be settled there. In fact, other Fulani are even coming.
“In conjunction with Islamic Bank, we’re building dam, artificial insemination centre, veterinary clinic, school for their children and all what it takes to form a settlement, we’re doing that.
“We also established a security training institute where we are training our young men and women for community policing, even yesterday, I graduated graduated 200, whilwy 500 are under training there, with the advice of the security agencies in Kano.
“So all these efforts are in order to keep Kano in the peace, apart from other policies in education, free and compulsory education, reforming the Almajiri system, what we have done to the health sector, and so many other things. But this one is left for the people to say”, he said.
Speaking on the assassination attempt on the life of Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, Ganduje expressed worry. He wondered what the fate of the ordinary citizen could be of a governor with security detail could be so attacked.
He said: “I think it’s unfortunate, but I believe with appointment of new service chiefs, new strategy will be developed and I think Mr. President has always been serious on this issue, but is rather unfortunate.
“Not only governors being attacked, anybody who is attacked in Nigeria, one should be worried because life is life. Certainly we’re worried because a governor is supposed to have some security with him, let alone of an ordinary man who has no security.
“So you can see how serious the situation is. It’s unfortunate, but we believe will come over it.”