Why our borders should remain close-

In this interview, Hon Ahmed Dayyabu Safana APC member representing Safana/Batsari/ Danmusa federal constituency of Kastina state, says the closure of Nigerian borders has been beneficial and should be sustained.  Joshua Egbodo brings excerpt.

Is the call for the president to sack Service Chiefs justified?

Generally speaking whenever you are assigned with a responsibility you need to do it perfectly but when it turns out the other way round, what you are supposed to do is to resign, most especially when they notice that your tenure has expired.  Definitely the people would  call for your resignation,  that is why the masses are calling for a change in the service chiefs.

I was in support of their resignation initially, but when I had discussions with military professionals, who said in the profession, you don’t change commanders easily because it is dangerous, may be that is why the president doesn’t want to change or sack the service chiefs because of his military background.

But for me with the continuous increase in crime and insecurity, I personally thought that if they are replaced it would be better for the country. I can remember in Niger Republic when the insurgency was increasing to a higher level where their commander was killed immediately the president announced the removal of the Chief of Army Staff and replaced him and the present one is performing very well.

So when you assigned responsibility to someone for a purpose and if that purpose is not achieved you change him and give the assignment to another person.

Your constituency was attacked by banditry, what was the cause?

The cause was negligence by security operatives. My constituency has been suffering from insurgency for a very long time now and I have raised three motions in the floor of the house because of it, thank God it has reduced a little now, but the bandits are deploying new tactics to attack the people. What happened recently in Batsari and to be specific in Tsoho and Demka villages, were very unfortunate. If you saw what had happened in those villages, according to information we received, it was terrible and it seems the security personnel can no longer protect the lives of the people.

And the people decided to take laws into their hands by attacking the bandits and killed one of them, seized their vehicle, according to the story. They even took their guns and left, as the bandits reinforced and came for a revenged. They came to request for their seized items and a retaliatory attacked. It was so serious that houses were razed down and many items destroyed by the bandits.

What are the steps taken to ameliorate the suffering of the victims?

The attack could be the first in this two areas but in the local government Bastari, it is not the first, there were several previous attacks and as usual, well reported. After military intervention they always mellow down, regroup and return which forced our people to resort to self-defence and prayer.

As a representative, I try to support them with food items and cash to enable them reduce their sufferings especially since in this case the whole village was set ablaze and their farms were also affected. Their homes and cattle were destroyed. So there is nothing much that we can do and the Katsina state government has also assisted them. The senator representing the district and state assembly member also gave them support.

What is your view on regional security outfit as preventive measure to curb banditry?

You see even in the Northern part of the country, they have private security outfit called “Yanbanga” but the issue is, their operational system is what matters. This is what I believe the police force, and judiciary is challenging. Since we do not have state police for now the private security outfit is just like an association, so they are in existence already. I think the problem in the Southern part of the country is the attempt to institutionalize “Amotekan” as legal outfit. This is not possible because no responsible government would allow state or individual or group to form an institution without a legal backing.

This is against the law and the federal government will support that. Though private security is allowed to checkmate criminal activities within a community or state but on a larger perspective it is not allowed until approved by government we should not forget that the civilian JTF are also supporting the military operation of the Southern zones. The members of Civilian JTF know the terrace more than the military personal so if there is joint operation I think they will be successful in getting rid of bandits in the country.

What projects have you executed for constituency so far?

I won’t call them empowerment but little interventions for schools where I distributed over four hundred chairs and tables. I have many items awaiting distribution to schools and I hope to do so soon.

Do you support the rehabilitation of the repentant Boko Haram?

One has to look at this issue critically. The Boko Haram members arrested, do we not originally members of Boko Haram, and because some of them were captured and forced into the act?  For these ones, if you rehabilitate them, they would become genuinely repentant and ready to live normal life because they never intended to become Boko  Haram members.

I think such people need rehabilitation so that they would come back on track and become useful to the society. That is why I am in support of releasing and rehabilitating some of them. But for the harden ones who have made up their minds even if you tried to bring them back to normal life they will cause more harm to the society.

Increased abused of hard drugs by youths?

I would like to use this opportunity to commend the NDLEA for their effort in curbing drugs menace. They are trying in no small measure to reduce smuggling with the closure of the border.

Of course the intake of hard drugs were contributing factors to the menace of youth restiveness and insecurity in the country but with the way and manner the NDLEA is working it has reduced seriously. In Katsina state, you would discover that whoever is selling drugs is either arrested or is being hunted.

Support border closure?

Yes. The border was the avenue where drugs and other light weapons were bean smuggled into the country. These weapons were used against our people and drugs to influence our youths in dastardly acts. So border closure to me is perfect and I wish it is sustained for a while.

Performance of your state Governor Bello Masari

Well from the little I know the governor is trying his best in the area of health and rural water supply. In short he is doing well with the state.

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