Banditry: Ganduje visits Buhari, seeks military deployment in Kano forest

Abdullahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to deploy more military personnel to forests in Kano.

Speaking to journalists on Friday after meeting with the president in Abuja, Ganduje said he came to brief Buhari on the security situation in his state.

He called for the establishment of another military training base in the forest bordering Kano, Kaduna, Bauchi and Plateau, as part of efforts to check the activities of criminals. 

“There are challenges all over the country that are unfortunate, but we believe Mr. President is doing his best with other stakeholders in order to curtail the situation,” he said.

“We need the helping hand of almost everybody, especially governors and chairmen of local governments. We have observed that the security situation now, our forests are the major problems because they accommodate bandits, terrorists, armed robbers and criminals.

“In Kano state, we have taken some measures. We have two large forests including the Falgore forest, which borders Kano, Kaduna and Bauchi and also not far away from Plateau. In that forest, we established a military training ground in conjunction with the army and there’s a lot of military training going on in that forest, using the facilities that we have provided. 

“So, that is helping to checkmate the activities of bandits in that forest and I have requested Mr. President to also establish another institution within that forest and that forest will be liberated completely.”

He added that the state introduced the use of technology within its forests to improve effective communication between security operatives in the state.

According to Ganduje, the state has also constituted an enlarged security committee to promote efforts to maintain peace.

“We have introduced technology within the forest. From the office of the DSS in Kano and the office of the commissioner of police and even from my office, we are able to monitor what is happening in that forest,” he said.

“And there’s effective communication between the DSS and the police and those who are managing the forest — the checkpoints and various places that security agencies are manning. 

“We’re laying over 100 kilometres optic fibre within Kano metropolis, so that CCTV cameras will be more effective and we can manage the whole mega city in terms of security and also in terms of improvement of network.

“We have also constituted what we call an enlarged security committee because limiting it to the air force, army, police, DSS, civil defence, I think the security network, in terms of flow of information, requires much more than that. 

“So, we are including customs, immigration, correctional homes, those involved in prevention of human trafficking, NAFDAC, NDLEA, FRSC, our own local traffic managers — Karota, and the vigilante group. All these, we put them into one committee where we hold meetings and exchange information. 

“Also, we introduced technology. As earlier mentioned, we have the most powerful tracker in the country. Through that one, even some people who escaped to Niger Republic, Cameroon, we were able to trace them and connect with international security agencies for their arrest.”