Katsina State governor, Dikko Umaru Radda, has said that his administration has adopted a new approach in dealing with the problem of banditry bedevilling the state.
Radda said a more proactive approach has been adopted by his government, saying one of such methods was by taking attacks to bandits and other criminals’ hideouts rather than the old defensive approach.
The governor dropped the hint when he received the management team of Media Trust Limited in his office in Katsina on Wednesday.
“In the area of security, we are doing as much as possible to bring about some innovations in the security architecture of the state that will help us to mitigate the activities of the bandits and other criminals and also to help us build and rehabilitate those people that are devastated, the victims of criminalities.
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“To achieve that, we have created the office of the special assistant to the governor on IDPs and other victims of criminality in the state,” he said.
“Our approach this time around is not trying to be defensive but to also be proactive and attacking. Because we would not sit down and allow these idiots to come and kill our people. Since they are chasing us, we will chase back as well, so that we will get our state out of this situation,” the governor said.
He added that his administration had designed some operations “To weed out the Kauraye (miscreants) that are disturbing a lot of people in the state capital.”
He however noted that meaningful results could not be achieved without a robust synergy and simultaneous operations with neighbouring states because if one state was doing and others were not, the criminals will always have where to go, regroup and renew their offensive.”
The governor said in the last few weeks of his administration, the main focus was to put government machinery in motion, to plan proper take off, saying some laws were enacted that were aimed at bringing stability in the way the government will be run.
Governor Radda sought the cooperation of the media, saying the press has a critical role to play in the trying time that the country is going through in order to calm nerves and make the citizens understand the situation.
“We are in such a difficult situation now that any news item that goes out to the public is very important. You need to streamline it, analyse it, and do as much as possible to project the country in a good light, but also ensure transparency and accountability on the side of the government.
“Every other country has negativity in terms of the way they operate, but they sometimes bring the better side of the news, which will help in building the image of their country outside its shores,” he said.
