Former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, has blamed lack of proper intelligence gathering for the emergence of new terrorist group, Lakurawa.
Shekarau said the federal and state governments can address
the issue of new terrorist groups emerging through proper intelligence
gathering and community policing.
About six people have reportedly lost their lives, with
scores injured after angry youths attacked Fulani residents in Mera community,
Augie Local Government Area, Kebbi State.
SaharaReporters reports that the youths reportedly carried
out the attack on Sunday in response to allegations linking some Fulani
individuals to recent bandit raids in the area.
According to the report, the violence was allegedly
triggered after a survivor of Friday’s bandit attack informed the community
youths that he recognised some Fulani faces among the attackers, known locally
as “Lakurawa.”
Featuring on Channels TV’s programme, Sunrise Daily,
Shekarau said: “This is giving us an impression that our intelligence gathering
is still below average because if the intelligence have been up and doing from
all the agencies, then this thing should have been discovered earlier than now.
The new insurgents have already started attacking communities by giving them
all kinds of nightmares and collecting levies.
“I think we have had enough of insurgents we are battling
with, so for them to have come in from neighbour countries like Niger Republic
into the borders of Sokoto and Kebbi, I think we need to do a lot of
restructuring of the security architecture.
“When I was a governor, I always meet with the security
committee and I directed all the local government to meet on the last Thursday
of every month. The state security committee, the local government security
will meet and report back whatever they have.
“If government will initiate a proper community intelligence
gathering there will be peace.We did in Kano and the people trust this
arrangement far more, the traditional institution was greatly involved and we
empowered them.
“One of the major things to do is to improve the nature of
intelligence gathering. The number of police, Army, and military is not enough
for them to be all over the place. Through intelligence gathering you will be
able to identify informants who are working with insurgents.
“If we want to address this issue, the government (Federal
and State) must work together to improve intelligence gathering through community
watch and policing. Up till now, we have not been able to produce some of these
things.”
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