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END INSECURITY IN KEBBI SOUTH

Following the incessant attacks by armed bandits in some villages within Zuru Emirate and most recently the attacks that claimed more than 30 lives of people and burning down of so many houses in Munhaye and Unashi, the Kebbi state Government under the leadership of His Excellency Sen. Atiku Bagudu the governor of Kebbi state have continued to strategize on how to bring an end to Banditry.

In his wisdom and in an attempt to bring an end to this surge of Insecurity within the state, the Kebbi state government in collaboration of security agents and security experts conducted a thorough air surveillance within the southern fringes of Kebbi state and the neighbouring border villages of Niger and Zamfara states. These borderlines are majorly forested with few dispersed houses formerly occupied by local farmers before they were displaced recently by the Bandits.

So much intelligence have been gathered on the whereabouts of the bandits, their activities and their plans to strike some villages and to occupy them. Notable among the villages they supposedly plan to attack and occupy include the surrounding villages of Unashi, Bena, Wasagu, Maga all in Danko Wasagu local government of kebbi State.

Banditry activities which involve cattle rustling, kidnappings, killings, carting away of farm produce and in some cases burning down of houses as seen during the Munhaye massacre is now a national disaster that requires a holistic, robust, strategic and effective national security approach to bring it to end.

It is a known fact that in spite of the fact that Governors are the chief security officers of their respective states, we all know that the deployment of the Policemen, military and detective officers along their operational vehicles and other logistics is an exclusive responsibility of the federal government. But it is also the responsibility of the state government to call the attention of the federal government and provide it with the preliminary results of their security investigations and on this note , we want to believe that his Excellency Sen. Atiku Bagudu the executive governor of Kebbi must have made available to the federal government through the appropriate security institutions, the recent reports of security air surveillance that was carried out under his watch along side other security reports and recommendations by the stakeholders. And if that is done, it is then the negligence of duty by the federal government to be still sitting on such reports without taking and implementing measures that will prevent the encroachment of these killer Bandits to further kill and displace farmers as seen already.

Furthermore, the recommendations and suggestions as provided by the security agents, experts, vigilante groups and traditional Leaders need to be implemented without further delay, if not things may soon get out of hand.

As already suggested a joint operation involving air strikes, ground troops combined with vigilante groups ( Yan sakai) need to move into action to push these bandits backward and recover the presently lost farm lands. The rainy season is already here and the president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari has already directed the security chiefs to deploy new officers that will lead to the recovery of occupied lands by the Bandits and also secure vulnerable areas from such attacks, so that farmers can go about their farming activities without fear.

In order to carry out this joint operation successfully and effectively there is need for the security agents to stop the open harassment and arrests of vigilante group leaders as seen recently. There is no doubt, some of this vigilante members have overstepped their boundaries and in such instances the government is right to call them to order. But this should be done in such a manner that they should not be demoralized and humiliated thereby emboldening the Bandits to carry out more severe attacks. The issue of vigilante groups and their operations is a ” very complicated surgery” which requires so much diligence and carefulness. His Excellency Sen. Atiku Bagudu should be careful not to pay attention to haters of vigilante groups and their ulterior motives to worsen the fragile security situation for monetary gains, political or selfish interests. His Excellency should pay attention to the voices of reason most especially those voices that he has been warned by some people not to listen to. That is what is required of a of a Leader of his calibre.

This words of Sergeant Cox should guide his Excellency “The first necessity for obtaining self-knowledge is to become profoundly conscious of ignorance; to feel with every fibre of the heart that one is ceaselessly self-deceived. The second requisite is the still deeper conviction that such knowledge – such intuitive and certain knowledge – can be obtained by effort.”

To obtain knowledge by effort here requires humility from the governor by holding a meeting or interactive session with the selected vigilante members in such a venue of his convenience. By doing so in the presence of those he chooses, he will be able to understand the foolishness of their wisdom and the wisdom of their foolishness hence create an opportunity to educate them. The most annoying part of the activities of the vigilante groups is their meddling into Civic cases and not only that but also going to the extent to reverse some valid court judgements, most especially on land ownership issues, no responsible government will sit and watch it’s legal institutions being undermined. But it is known fact that there are records of so many sharp and corrupt practices in our law courts. And in some rulings by the judges, this injustices are so loud and clear even to a deaf and dump, to this end the law of Karma is inevitable as seen today by the challenges faced by the judiciary. The ability to question realities happening in our peaceful state with independence and to see true and false ideas by oneself, must be an essential goal of his Excellency and the Chief of judge of kebbi state.

The ultimate aim of governance and administration of justice is to create or recreate a society in which both the rich and the poor will feel protected and secured. The continues attacks by the armed Bandits and the inability of Government to track and crack them down will continue to make people raise observations if those who stood out for self defence are arrested, detained and prosecuted, the circumstances leading to such decision by the government not withstanding.

In the words of H.P Blavatsky “Those who live in the pleasure-ground of fancy see truth in the unreal and untruth in the real. They never arrive at truth. Those who abide in the world of right thought see truth in the real and untruth in the unreal. They arrive at truth”

Therefore, to arrive at the truth, Kebbi state government need to address some of it’s corrupt Judges to improve on their poor performances by bringing an end to ” selling justice to the highest bidder or the most influential” The court still remains the last hope of common man. For if courts, judges and law enforcement agents are doing their job according to the ethics of their profession, the likes of yan sakai or Bandits could have not emerged in the first place. It is an act of injustice for the Government to be engaged in negotiation with bandits and paying their Leaders huge sums of money but on the other hand arresting vigilante group leaders whose primary purpose of emergence is to defend themselves, their families, farmlands and communities. And if this bias continued, some of these vigilante members, may see wisdom in taking arms to engage in acts of terrorism, God for bid.

” One must study to know, know to understand, understand to judge” The effort to jointly use the vigilante members together with the military is laudable but this can not be sustained if the same military is used in arresting and harassing them. Challenges are inevitable but the ability of leaders to overcome those challenges using conventional or unconventional methods is what make them great!

With the recent displacement of our farmers from their villages in Sakaba, Wasagu, Ayu, Unashi and many others , the new challenge now is how to provide alternative habitats for them and not only that , their source of livelihood has been destroyed hence the chances of these displaced farmers to resort to crime as an alternative means of survival is eminent unless a deliberate step to reverse that is taken, though a little late but never too late !

SUGGESTIONS ON HOW TO TACKLE THE UPHEAVALS IN NIGERIA

In the quest to end banditry and other criminal activities that has impacted agriculture and other economic activities in troubled axis negatively; the State Government in close collaboration with Federal Government should consider the following measures:

All the identified camps should be dislodged through aerial bombarded and ground offensive by the military.

Abandoned villages currently inhabited by these outlaws should be ransacked by the military in collaboration with local vigilante groups (Yan Sakai)

Yan Sakai like the Civilian JTF counterparts in the North East should be vetted, restructured, trained, equipped and incorporated into the security architecture of the troubled areas. This will go a long way to as to checkmate the nefarious activities of the bandits by leveraging on the local knowledge and volunteer spirit to make than more useful in the fight against insecurities in the North West.

All of the criminals arrested in any part of Kebbi State should be prosecuted and tried accordingly. The administration of criminal justice system should be robust and not excused under any questionable circumstances such as amnesty etc.

The military and Yan Sakai should continue to act more proactively and offensively. They should be given the necessary logistics and resources needed for their operations and welfare. Instead of the largely defensive actions currently being practised.

Victims of banditry as well as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the menace should be tracked forthwith, identified and properly documented. As some of these category of victims of insecurity could be tempted to carry arms for self help or reprisal killings, if there is no respite in sight. Thus, escalating the already precarious security situation in the country.

The government should consider deploying technology and other best practices recently deployed in it’s Social Security Programmes such as the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), for direct payment of compensations to all victims of banditry who lost properties. That’s after the data of victims and IDPs have be captured and authenticated by vigorous process facilitated cross section of stakeholders.

Finally, the Federal Government should consider incorporate Civilian Support/Local Resistance Corps program for volunteer into the Armed Forces Laws and supporting policies to make it a National Defence strategy, instead of the ad hoc arrangements.

Arrested Yan SAKAI leaders, should be released. Their arrest was one of the factors that have weakened the self defence mechanism put in place. Also the Bandits felt emboldened after hearing the news of the arrest of the vigilante leaders.

They should be made to sign an undertaking not to engage in meddling into other civil and criminal activities.

The Victor a Victim-Gotnamewrites

Angel If mine-Gotnamewrites