The Katsina State Government said it’s ready to support people to assist the security agents in protecting their respective communities against attacks by bandits, kidnappers and other criminals.

The state governor, Dikko Radda, made the disclosure at a public engagement, ‘‘2025 Citizens’ Budget Participation Process’’ and the launch of a community development programme in the Katsina zone, on Friday in Katsina.

The governor stated, “We have come up with an initiative that for any community ready to defend itself, we will give them necessary support and training to engage criminals before the arrival of the security agents. I went to a village, Tsamiyar-jino, where it took me two hours inside a jeep before I reached the village from the main road. So, if bandits attack such areas, from the time you inform the security, it will take them over two hours before they can respond to the distress call. By then, whatever is going to happen will have happened – they will have killed people and kidnapped others.’’

The governor lamented that there were not enough security agents to provide security to communities in the state.

He said, “I have said it several times that the security agents cannot do this work alone. We didn’t even have enough of them. I am surprised at the way we are dying in such a humiliating manner. We were told that anyone who died in defence of his family will enter paradise. You see five criminals attacking a community of 2,000 to 3,000 people, rape daughters, women and abduct others without any confrontation from the people of that community. If there are 100 youths in the community who confront them, they will not shoot for more than three times without being captured with bare hands. Paying ransom doesn’t even prevent a hostage from being killed by abductors, sometimes they collect the money and kill the victim.’’

Mr Radda lamented that many people were into the act, saying, “there was a representative of the village head who collected N700,000 from bandits and allowed them to enter his area and killed about 30 people.

He added, “There were women arrested, a teacher serving as their informant, in fact, almost all the segments of people involved in this act.”

The governor stated that his administration had established a Community Security Watch Corps and recruited youth from the front-line local governments.

“We trained them and attached them with the police and the army to work in synergy after providing them rifles, bulletproof vests, umbrellas, three sets of uniforms and shoes, among others,” he said.

Mr Radda added that the government provided them 700 motorcycles, 65 Hilux cars and 10 Armoured Personnel Carrier in addition to the rehabilitation of others that belonged to the police.

“We pay N3 million for fuelling and maintenance of those vehicles to front-line local governments and N1.5 million for vulnerable local governments and N750,000 for the remaining LGAs. We also purchased surveillance gadgets that you cannot find anywhere in the country. Ours is 5G and not the normal 3G,” the governor said.

He, therefore, urged the people to intensify efforts in providing information to security agents for their security and safety.

(NAN)