By Our Reporter
The governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has said he will invite foreign mercenaries to defend the people of his state against incessant attacks by terrorists if the Nigerian security forces would not stop the spate of criminal activities going on.
The governor stated this after his latest visit to the Presidential Villa in Abuja where he briefed the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari, following the recent attack on a Kaduna-bound train.
He also stated that four others of the seven Northwestern states—Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi, Sokoto—may join him to hire foreign mercenaries if the Federal Government does not end the ongoing spate of terror attacks in the region.
According to the visibly worried governor, “Why is it that up till now, the security has not gone to kill them? Where are our soldiers? Why have they not done it? That is why I have come to see Mr President. And also I have said that if these actions are not taken, it becomes a must for us as governors to take measures to protect our citizens, even if it means we will import mercenaries from outside the country to do it. If our soldiers fail, I swear to God, we will do that. This issue has gotten to an alarming state.”
As El-Rufai further explained, the latest attack on the Abuja-Kaduna train, which left eight passengers dead and several others injured, would have been avoided if the federal government had heeded his earlier warnings.
In his view, the train attack is the handwork of Boko Haram, not terrorists known as bandits who have been roaming the Northwest for a few years now.
“To us,” he said, “this happened because we have consistently written letters to the Nigerian Railway Corporation. We wrote them twice to stop night trips because we had a security report that Boko Haram had entered and they were planning to blow up the train. We wrote to them twice but they didn’t listen.
“Secondly, the Air Force, in response to that security report, went and established a base at Katari, where helicopters can land and refuel so that if anything happens, they can quickly respond. But that cannot work at night because some helicopters cannot even fly at night. That is why we advised the Federal Government that the night train should be stopped.
“We suggested that the last trip should leave Abuja by 4:00pm so that they could arrive in Kaduna before nightfall and the same for the last trip from Kaduna, but our advice was not taken. It took the security agents over an hour to get to the scene when the attack happened because it was night. It would have been faster in the afternoon.”
As for the position of political leaders in the region in general on the current security situation, El-Rufai said, “We have been suggesting that these forests where these people are, we should go there and bomb the forests for everyone in the forest to be killed. Honestly, if this is not done, this banditry in Niger, Katsina, Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto will not end.
“This thing can consume the entire Nigeria, because the way these people are getting money, the way they boast that they don’t fear authorities, they don’t fear the military, I don’t know why up till now the Nigerian military will not enter these forests and deal with these people.”
El-Rufai is emphatic that if the military takes no proactive response, he would hire mercenaries to do the job. “Why do we always wait for them to strike before we go after them? Why can’t we go to where they are and kill them? We know where they are. We have the maps as the military knows, the policemen know and everyone knows. The DSS is giving us a report every time: see where Dogo Gide is, see what he is planning.
“Why is it that up till now, the security operatives have not gone to kill them? Where are our soldiers? Why have they not done it? That is why I have come to see Mr President.
“And also I have said that if these actions are not taken, it becomes a must for us as governors to take measures to protect our citizens, even if it means we will import mercenaries from outside the country to do it. If our soldiers fail, I swear to God, we will do that,” he said.
The governor however noted that the President assured him that the attacks will be brought to an end soonest.
