‘Governors are worried’ — Ganduje speaks on Ortom attack

Abdulahi Ganduje, governor of Kano, says the attack on Samuel Ortom, his Benue state counterpart, is worrying.

The Benue governor and his security aides were attacked by suspected herdsmen at the weekend.

Speaking on Monday after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the presidential villa, Abuja, Ganduje said the rising spate of insecurity in the country is unfortunate.

Ganduje noted that the situation would get better through the new strategies being deployed by the service chiefs.

“I think it’s unfortunate, but I believe with appointment of new service chiefs, new strategy will be developed and I think Mr. President has always been serious on this issue but is rather unfortunate,” he said.

“Not only governors being attacked, anybody who is attacked in Nigeria, one should be worried because life is life. Certainly, we’re worried because a governor is supposed to have some security with him, let alone of an ordinary man who has no security.

“So you can see how serious the situation is. It’s unfortunate, but we believe will come over it.”

Ganduje also said Kano is safe because of various investments his administration has made in security.

The governor described the state as the “most peaceful” in the country.

He said: “All what I know as of today Kano is the most peaceful state in the federation and this is not by chance; there must be some security measures that we have taken, like full cooperation among the security agencies in Kano state.

“We introduced the command and control centre; the CCTV where we are viewing the whole Metropolitan Kano. We have the most powerful tracker vehicle, equipment in Kano.

“Falgore Forest where bandits usually inhabit, we said no, not in Kano state. We established a military training ground in Falgore Forest and therefore bandits cannot inhabit it.

“Our border with Kaduna, we have a forest and where we are establishing Ruga programme, we discussed with nomadic Fulani, they agreed to be settled there. In fact, other Fulani are even coming.”

Ganduje said his administration is constructing a world-class three-level road interchange to be named after President Buhari.

He said the interchange, consisting of a flyover, bridge, and underpass, became necessary because of the fast-growing population of the city.