The Governor of Katsina State Aminu Masari has rebuked calls for the Federal Government to declare state of emergency over security issues..
He revealed this on Thursday, after a meeting with the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Professor Ibrahim Gambari at the State House in Abuja.
The Governor queried “how a state of emergency can solve the problem” while adding that “You have a situation where the military is in all the states of the federation, then you ask yourself, how many do we have?”
According to Masari, the military is already overstretched due to battling against different threats across the country.
“Are we not overstretching them? So the reality is the responsibility of securing this country is ours, all of us.
“I think we better be serious about this issue of security. If you say set up a state of emergency, what do you do?
“We are having the same people, the same security agencies, the same capacities, and the same resources. So what are we talking about?”
He also advised that “the responsibility of securing the country does not rest solely on a sect of individuals or security agency” while urging the populace to look beyond partisan politics.
He added that his administration was working hard to contain the ugly trend of banditry, kidnapping among several others.
He also said the state government is working closely with security agencies to nip criminal activities in the bud for the overall good of residents of Katsina State.
He added, “Actually the situation is still of high concern, insecurity is real and we’re doing everything to make sure that we control the situation so that it doesn’t reach the level it reached before and we’re hopeful that working together with the security agencies and the responsible people and also the repentant bandits will be able to have our state will back to normalcy.”