The Governor of Zamfara State, Dr Dauda Lawal has appealed to the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major General Taoreed Lagbaja to assist in curbing incessant insecurity in the state.
The governor told COAS that his state has become a hub for criminality, says that deaths of innocent citizens are recorded on a daily basis.
The Governor made the request during a visit to COAS and principal officers at the army headquarters, Garki, Abuja.
Governor Lawal congratulated the Chief of Army Staff on his appointment and pointed out that the appointment of the security Chief has given Nigerians hope.
Dr. Dauda said Zamfara State as at today is facing serious security challenges and as head of government he is saddled with the responsibility of protecting lives and property in the state. He therefore called on the Chief of Army Staff to assist in bringing peace to the state and to Nigeria as a whole.
“I thank you sir that the troops in Zamfara are doing well to secure the state, however we need much more to secure the state and to compliment the efforts of the present troops especially on the issue of banditry facing Zamfara State.
“It is sad to mention that no day passes without someone being kidnapped or killed in the state, without security there would be no development and without security, there will be no farming, our children can’t go to school, Sir I appealed to you to consider not just the manpower but the instruments used to combat these crimes”
“My government is ever ready to assist the security agencies in any capacity to combat the banditry that makes life difficult for people in my state,
I also appeal to you to look into how to bring synergy between the security forces within the state, synergy between the security forces and the civil society to enable flow of information, if we are able to tackle the security in Zamfara state, the whole of north will be more secure” stated Dr. Dauda.
The Zamfara state Governor expressed confidence in the team of security Chiefs appointed by President Bola Tinubu and said to whom much is given much is also expected as there is much more work to be done on Nigeria’s security situation.
COAS in his response, assured him that the Nigerian Army was working on finding a lasting solutions to the lingering problem of insecurity in Zamfara state in collaboration with the state government and other critical stake holders.
The Army Chief said the Nigerian Army and the armed forces of Nigeria has risen up to the challenges in Zamfara to combat the security threats with operation HADARIN DAJI, which had been up and running in Zamfara and environs.
General Lagbaja said he was delighted to have a good feed-back from the people on the ongoing field operations of the military in state from the state government.
He admitted that Zamfara has its share of ethnic clashes heightened by the issues of the mining sites, which is also driving insecurity in Zamfara as well as the activities of some non-state actors that have access to small arms.
“The issue of the armnesty program needs to be looked into as it has given some criminal elements the leverage to regroup and launch attacks on innocent citizens in communities some communities. The Nigerian army is working to synchronise the operations between 2 Division and 8 Division to combat these threats”
“On the issues of combat enablers you talked about, we will look into getting more combat enablers for our troops to be more effective in operations. We will continue to provide Needed support to our troops as we are aware that the epicemtre of criminal elements has moved from Maiduguri to Zamfara” stated General Lagbaja.