Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, Governor of Katsina State, has urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on national security.
Katsina is one of the epicentres in the nation’s North-West where banditry and other criminal activities reign supreme, traumatizing a diverse range of citizens.
Speaking on Saturday in Katsina at the start of a meeting of the Conference of Speakers of the Legislature from the country’s 36 states, Masari said that security agencies were doing their best to combat the nationwide state of insecurity, but that the Federal Government should take more measures to address the issue.
According to Masari, “the Federal Government should declare a state of emergency on the nation’s security.
“The security agencies are doing their best to curtail the state of insecurity in different parts of three country but more needs to be done to check activities of bandits and other criminal elements across the country.
“Our major problem in Katsina State is the security challenges facing us in parts of the state.
“With support from the Katsina State House of Assembly, some legal framework has been put in place while existing ones were restructured in order to address the security challenges.”
The Governor identified the 1975 Local Government Reforms as a key factor in the nation’s current security issues and urged conference participants to adopt certain measures being implemented by Katsina State to combat insecurity.
“The 1975 local governments reforms removed the powers of traditional rulers without providing a replacement which has created serous gap in the system.
“The Katsina State government decided to review the system and bring on board the traditional institutions and other relevant stakeholders to participate directly in security decisions and management.
“We reviewed the state local government law and we have created created three-tier security committees across the 34 Local Government areas,to provide security agencies with useful information and assist in effective policing and ensure arrest of offenders and hand them over to the appropriate authorities.
“We also adopted the Security Containment Order which is another milestone achievement recorded in the security subsector as well as community conflict resolution centres across the state for civil and non-criminal cases, to reduce congestion in the courts.
“These measures have recorded tremendous success and I call on participants to use the Katsina state experience in order to bring meaningful progress and development to our respective states,” Masari said.
Earlier in his address, Abubakar Suleiman, Chairman of the Conference of Speakers and Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, expressed regret that “the state of insecurity in our country today has assumed a disturbing dimension and thus has constituted a serious threat not only to economic growth and development but also to the peace and unity of the nation.”
“This is the time therefore for all hands to be on deck to fight the menace of insecurity for the good of our nation.
“As representatives of the people at the grassroot, we are indeed worried by the negative trend of insecurity in the nation.
“We have therefore convened this meeting to discuss and proffer solution to this problem within our constitutional mandate.”
With the theme, “the menace of insecurity in the country and role of state Houses of Assembly to restore peace and order,“ a communique was still being awaited at the time of this report on Saturday afternoon.
