Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has expressed appreciation on the positive changes in the security situation of the state over the past six weeks.
He stated that the deployment of Special Forces by the military is reducing the level of attacks in the state.
According to him, if the methods currently being used had been put in place a few years ago, the security situation would have been better in the state.
The governor spoke on Thursday while featuring on Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme monitored in Kaduna as part of activities lined up for the ongoing KADInvests.
Media reports have said that hundreds of people have been killed by terrorists and bandits while many have been displaced in the last few years as part of the campaign of calumny ravaging the larger part of the North West.
Military doing what we’ve been yearning for’
El-Rufai had for long been vocal about the alleged failure of security agencies to tackle terrorists and other criminals.
He had called for a complete aerial bombardment of their enclaves saying that was the only way to stem their excesses.
According to him yesterday, all that the state government had requested the security agencies to do in the last two to three years were now happening in the state.
The governor said the Armed Forces had taken the bandits out of the state.
He stated: “The latest tactic deployed by the military is reducing the level of attacks in the state and Kaduna will be safer if the methods currently being used have been put in 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,” he said.
“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.
“The vigilantes are no match for the sophisticated non-state actors. 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 they want to get an AK-47 for Amotekun. You do not know what you are 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”.
