Gov Bello dubs security agencies as failures, wants traditional method

Niger State Governor Abubakar Bello has bemoaned the failure of Nigeria security forces to guarantee the safety of the people and said he had lost confidence in them.

He therefore suggested a reversion to the traditional ways of securing communities, saying that part of the security votes given to the security agencies should be handed to traditional rulers to help in curtailing the alarming rate of crime in the country currently.

The governor made this suggestion when Niger Council of Traditional Rulers led by the Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, paid him a Sallah visit at the Government House, Minna.

Saddened with the current rate of crime across his state, Governor Bello said that there was a total breakdown of law and order in the state as criminals appear to have taken over.

“Despite the huge amounts voted and given to security agencies monthly, they have failed in making the state and nation safer as crime seems to have become the order of the day.

“I suggest that we go back to the traditional ways of securing our communities, the traditional system performed better in the past and they can do better now if more powers are given to them. I recommend that we give powers to traditional rulers for security.

“We spend a lot of money on security but we do not have a safe environment. In Niger State, we spend N100million every month on security, I am sure that if we spend a fraction of that money on traditional rulers, we will get better results than what we have now.”

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The governor further called for prayers for the country to be able to combat the new wave of crime as the security agencies seemed not to be working.

He said, “We need a lot of prayers in Niger State. We are faced with a new kind of security challenges that are unusual. There is a new wave of kidnapping, murder, armed robbery and clashes. It is a new wave that seems to be engulfing the state. People have decided to take the laws into their own hands and kill because they have conflict with others.

“We are beginning to lose it as a people and as a state. In the past, nobody got away with murder, kidnapping or other crimes but these days, kidnappers and other criminals walk the streets freely. As a governor, I am becoming afraid because I do not know who to trust or who to talk to.”

 

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