A village head has been ‘found out’ after he collected N700,000 from bandits to allow them free access to attack his community, Katsina State Governor, Dr Umaru Dikko Radda revealed.
Months ago, Radda described banditry as a business venture for some highly placed individuals in the country.
He has now disclosed how a village head and other locals benefit from banditry.
DETAILS OF THE CRIME
The governor told Saturday Vanguard that a village head was paid N700,000 by bandits, to allow free access to his village, and the consequent killing of about 30 of his subjects.
He added that for as little as N2,000, some persons would volunteer information to bandits about their neighbours or relatives.
On the village head, the governor said; ‘I will say yes, that we have arrested a village head in Guga village in Bakori local government of the state because of his involvement with the bandits.
‘He was given N700,000 to allow bandits access into his village to kill over 30 people.
EFFORTS TO TACKLE SECURITY PROBLEMS
‘The government deployed so many approaches but the notable ones are the kinetic and non-kinetic approaches and within, there are tangible approaches that have gone a long way in tackling security problems.
Gov. Radda who said some of his statements had been misrepresented, said; ‘I hold the security agencies in high esteem because they too are being killed daily in their pursuit to curb the insecurity in the state.
‘But the point is, there is no set category of people who are not involved in this. What are we hiding here? Who was not arrested? Different categories of people were arrested on allegations of being involved in banditry, criminality, and many other vices even here in Katsina.Â
STATE OF INSECURITY IN KATSINA STATE
On how far his administration has been able to tackle insecurity in the state, Dr Radda said 35 bandits were neutralized by the state joint security taskforce in the last year.Â
At the same time, 363 bandits were arrested and subjected to the state’s fair judicial system, while 565 kidnap victims were successfully rescued.
