Amotekun Can’t Match Weapons Bandits And Other Criminals Have – El-Rufai
- …Says arming security outfit’s a simplistic way of tackling banditry.
By Naomisophy blog
Governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State said yesterday that local security outfits and vigilantes do not possess the necessary firearms to fight bandits.
He particularly said arming Amotekun is a simplistic way of fighting banditry and other crimes, insisting ”they are not up to scratch.”
The governor, who stated this on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, described the Ondo’s governor’s plan as a simplistic approach to combating bandits.
Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, had called repeatedly on the federal government to approve for the security outfit the right to bear assualt rifles, such as AK-47, to confront violent criminals as bandits, herders, among others.
But Governor el-Rufai said the vigilantes are no match for the “sophisticated” non-state actors.
He said: “Local security networks can only provide local intelligence. They do not have the firearms to face these guys (bandits).
“These guys sometimes even rout the military. So, people are speaking simplistically when they say ‘I want to get an AK-47 for my Amotekun. You don’t know what you’re dealing with.
“We know. These guys are very well-armed. They are getting arms that are sophisticated. Sometimes they outgun the military. Those vigilantes are not up to scratch.”
The governor said there had been positive changes in the security of the state in the past six weeks.
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Kaduna is one of the north-west states targeted by bandits, recording many cases of kidnappings and killings in the last few years.
However, El-Rufai said the latest tactics deployed by the military are reducing the level of attacks in the state, adding that Kaduna would be safer if the methods currently being used had been put in place a few years ago.
“I’m happy to say in the last six weeks, there has been a change because the military has now deployed special forces here. And they have taken the bandits out. The air force is bombing them. All the things that we asked for two to three years ago are now happening.
“If that had been done three years ago, we’d be in a completely different environment. Because three years ago, they were much fewer in numbers, we knew their camps, we knew everything about them,” he said.
