We have come up with an initiative that for any community ready to depend on itself, we will give them necessary support and training to engage criminals before the arrival of the security agents. — Radda.

The Katsina State Government has expressed its readiness to provide support to individuals in helping security forces safeguard their communities from assaults by bandits, kidnappers, and other criminal elements.

He said, “We have come up with an initiative that for any community ready to depend on itself, we will give them necessary support and training to engage criminals before the arrival of the security agents.

“I went to a village, Tsamiyar-jino, where it took me two hours inside a Jeep before I reached the village from the main road.

“So, if bandits attack such areas, from the time you inform the security, it will take them over two hours before they can respond to the distress call.

“By then, whatever is going to happen will have happened – they will have killed people and kidnapped others,” he said.

The governor lamented that there were not enough security agents to provide security to all the communities in the state.

“I have said it several times, that the security agents cannot do this work alone. We didn’t even have enough of them.

“I am surprised at the way we are dying in such a humiliating manner. We were told that anyone who died in defence of his family will enter Paradise.

“You see five criminals attacking a community of 2,000 to 3,000 people, rape daughters, women and abduct others without any confrontation from the people of that community.

“If there are 100 youths in the community who confront them, they will not shoot for more than three times without being captured with bare hands

“Paying ransom doesn’t even prevent a hostage from being killed by abductors, sometimes they collect the money and kill the victim,”