…..justify decision to establish community watch corps
Governor Dikko Umar Radda of Katsina State has vowed to deal the death kneel to bandits behind the killings and destruction of properties worth billions of naira in the state.
Speaking to reporters in Abuja, he explained that the decision to establish the Community Watch Corps was aimed at achieving the goal.
The governor said the initiative, which has been endorsed by the Katsina State House of Assembly, was in furtherance of the need for the citizenry to work in concert with security agencies to rid the country of the menace of bandits and terrorists in the bud.
Admitting that he had received several death threats from the bandits, he remarked that he is faced with reports of kidnapping, killings and the theft of agricultural produce by bandits on daily basis.
He said it won’t be out of place to equip the 1,500-strong Community Watch Corps with weapons to tackle bandits and terrorists who pose an existential threat to the citizenry in the state.
He said, “It is a double-edged sword. We cannot fold our arms and say we will not protect ourselves because we don’t have the sophisticated arms that these bandits have.
“We have the numbers; we have the zeal and the determination, and you should remember, if they are going for any outing, it is just like the way it was done in Borno through the Civilian JTF, they will be covered by the police and the military who are heavily armed.
” So, I think it is a concerted and joint effort. And I think gradually, we are working within what the law allows us to possess. We cannot go beyond what the law allows us to do. We are driving towards that, and we are seeking reforms within the federal government in that regards.
“If a bandit can go to the market and buy AK-47, RPG, and all of that weapons, what of the people that want to protect themselves, they too should equally be allowed to do so. These people are holding it illegally; we are trying to hold it legally.
“Why can’t the government allow the people to hold this thing and equally confront the challenges? I am telling you they (bandits) are panicking, what this thing needs is courage, the courage to confront it and you should remember, army are being killed, police are being killed, so whoever sacrifices to offer this kind of service, he cannot rule out being harmed or killed in the course of doing this assignment.
“That is the sacrifice one has to make. This is a sacrifice one has to make in dealing with this situation. Even myself I have been receiving so many threats but that will not deter me. I have told you before, I will only die once not twice and it is only a coward who will sit back and allow someone to kill him.
“It is an obligation for us to protect ourselves. It is even against our religious belief to allow someone to just come and kill us and take our property just like that. We have to put efforts to protect ourselves and that is the aim of the government. So we are seeking for collaboration to address the challenges.”
Asked whether the establishment of the Community Watch Corps was akin to reintroducing state police surreptitiously, he said: “The issue is it has to start from somewhere. I just mentioned that Zamfara has passed the law, Sokoto is doing same and others are trying to set up committees.
“Because I have mentioned it earlier that we cannot achieve success if we do not have the cooperation of neighbouring States. So, we are already cooperating in this regard. The issue is we are going to do the best we can do and so long as we are in government we are going to sustain this.
“I am telling you this is a law that was enacted by the state assembly and signed by the governor, so whoever comes in will have to repeal the law before this could be stopped. That is why before we start we have to put a law in place because laws can stay longer after we exit because mandate is four years.”
Continuing, he noted: “85% of our population are engaged in one form of agricultural activity or the other as a source of livelihood for every citizen of the State. I have mentioned earlier that it has affected productivity but the good thing is in some places you cannot even go to the farm and some citizens of the State were turned into slaves, they will do all the farming, the bandits will come with their guns, they will harvest and take it to the bandits leaders house.
“They became slaves in a country that has freedom, where everyone has a right to life and living. And it surprises me to hear some people say abuse of human rights, who is abusing who?
“Those people that you don’t allow to go to farms, those people that you kill, those people that you rape their wives? Are those ones the ones violating human rights or it is when a bandit is killed that human rights is being violated? I don’t know, we have to redefine what is human rights.”
