Gov. Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state on Tuesday called on traditional and religious leaders to preach to their subjects against serving as informants to bandits.
He made the call in an interview with newsmen shortly after a condolence visit to Gov. Abubakar Bello of Niger over the demise of Sheikh Ahmed Lemu, a renowned Islamic Scholar and Aliyu Datti.
El-Rufai urged the leaders to preach against activities of informants to bandits and share intelligence with the government on whom the informants were.
“Informants are the same as bandits, they can be charged for conspiracy, kidnapping, aiding and abetting.
“It is the legislators, chairmen, traditional, religious and community leaders that are closer to the people and can be of great help to the security architecture,” he said.
The governor, who described the activities of bandits “as a serious problem”, commended the synergy between Kaduna and Niger states government against banditry.
He promised to continue to work with Niger state government as the most affected states with bandits’ attacks by sharing intelligence and called for similar collaboration with other states to curb the menace.
El-rufai advised the newly appointed service chiefs to build on existing foundation of their predecessors in order to overcome the security challenges.
He explained that the former service chiefs have contributed significantly to the success of the fight against insecurity in the country contrary the assumption of some Nigerians.
“Those of us that deal with them directly, those of us that have to call them at 1:00am to say that there are bandits in this area and a plane takes-off in 15 minutes to go to that area, know that they also worked very hard and they were not sleeping.”
