The Governor of Katsina State, Aminu Bello Masari, has called on residents of the state to defend themselves against bandits as the criminals are not spirits.
Masari who spoke at the inauguration of the Katsina Joint Security Operations and Communication Control Centre at the state police command headquarters on Saturday, said it was quite ridiculous that people are not defending themselves against bandit attacks.
He added that residents of the state cannot simply rely on security agencies alone to solve the problem of insecurity in their locations and should organize themselves to repel the bandits whenever they attack.
“Security is our responsibility. Why are we surrendering our responsibility to some people? I can’t see how more committed police or military officer can be than any of you,” the Governor said.
“Why should I sit in my village and be only making telephone calls without doing anything?
“Every bandit, every criminal has an address, has a location, and they’re human beings like us. The only difference is that they’ve taken arms against us; does it mean we’ve nothing to take against them?
“Do we mean we should vacate all our villages, all our farms, all our houses, and surrender them to bandits, and wait for police officer Emeka all the way from Enugu to come to Katsina and rescue me? This is ridiculous. Why?
“I think part of what this Katsina initiative needs to do is to go round all these local governments, let us talk to the people, and defend yourselves,” he added.
