June 06, (THEWILL) – Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, on Tuesday, said some former governors in the North-West compromised the security alliance among states in the region.
Sani disclosed this when he featured on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, a programme monitored by THEWILL.
Faulting the approach adopted against banditry in the North-West, Sani said the security alliance in the region broke down when some state governors decided to engage the bandits and terrorists, “sitting, wining, dining, compensating and negotiating with them.”
Sani said the North-West governors along with their Niger State counterpart, are in agreement on the need to tackle insecurity in the region
He disclosed that the governors are planning to meet President Bola Tinubu as a group.
His words: “I remember when the Kaduna State Government and some states within the North-West — and even Niger State, they have borders with us — came together to work out a framework to tackle this issue of insecurity.
“We had a joint committee, joint funding, working closely with all the security agencies — the army, the air force and the police.
“But unfortunately, somewhere along the line, the alliance broke down when some state governors decided to start engaging the bandits and the terrorists, sitting with them, wining and dining with them, compensating them, negotiating with them.
“Only two weeks ago, I invited all the Governors from the North-West to the Kaduna State Liaison Office in Abuja; I hosted them. Irrespective of party differences, they all came; we sat down together and came out with a kind of policy framework to tackle the problem of insecurity.
“We agreed that we have to have a common approach to the issue and we have to move away from the mistakes made by some previous governors that decided to compromise the operation in the past when they started giving money to the bandits and negotiating with them.
“In one of my conversations with him, he agreed that I should bring the governors from the zone to meet with him on the issue of insecurity.
“So, we have to work together with a common agenda, plan and operation. That is the only way we can be able to solve the problem.”
The states in the North-West are Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara.
