El-Rufai Slams Buhari Over Herdsmen And Bandits Killings

The Governor, El-Rufai is considered an ally of the incumbent president who assumed power in 2015 with a vow to crush Boko Haram and other criminal elements ravaging Nigeria.

Speaking at the second quarter 2021 meeting of the directors of state commands of the State Security Service (SSS) in the North-West, in Kaduna on Thursday, Governor El-Rufai admitted that insecurity had worsened under Buhari though the federal government has particularly and repeatedly claimed to have decimated Boko Haram.

“That the criminal gangs have become more daring and dangerous since recovering from their near defeat in 2015 is obvious across the country,” Governor El-Rufai acknowledged.

Apart from the protracted violence in Southern Kaduna, Governor El-Rufai’s state has become a hot bed of banditry where criminals kidnap for ransom and violently attack communities.

“I know our state is not where it should be in terms of internal security,” the governor admitted.

Security reports by the state government showed that over 300 persons were killed and about 1,000 kidnapped people kidnapped between January and April 2021.

Governor El-Rufai lamented Kaduna and other parts of the country did not get enough security cover from Buhari’s regime.

He stated, “We in the Kaduna state government are convinced that we do not have enough boots on the ground to cover the whole of Nigeria. We have too few policemen. We have too few officers’ men and women of the armed forces.

“We need to have many more. Unfortunately, you cannot have more overnight. You have to get the right people. You have to train them before we can get to that ideal number of the number of boots on the ground.”

But Governor El-Rufai touted his efforts to tackle the security crisis.

“We have in the last five years been installing a closed-circuit TV system across the Kaduna metropolis,” he told the SSS directors. “We hope that this project will be completed within the next one year, and with that, the police and other security agencies will be empowered to be able to take pre-emptive action to deter criminals.”

 “We have invested in drones, and we are investing in more drones, working with the air force and the SSS to see that these drones are deployed to provide additional intelligence. We are also building a forensic laboratory to help the police and other security agencies in crime detection and prevention.