A former Senator representing Kaduna Central district, Shehi Sani, said the governor of the state, Nasir El-Rufai, is a major contributing factor to the security challenges in the state.
Mr Sani, who spoke to Arise Television on Sunday, said Mr El-Rufai’s memo to President Muhammadu Buhari about the deteriorating security in the state was only an attempt to exonerate himself from the problem.
Mr Sani, who said the letter was the governor’s admission of failure, said there is nothing new in the letter that was not already known several years ago, even when the governor was denying that the problem existed.
PREMIUM TIMES reported that in the letter, Mr El-Rufai told the president that terrorists were forming a “parallel” government and “permanent operational base” in the state.
The terrorists belonging to Ansaru al-Musulmina fi Bilad al-Sudan, or Ansaru for short, are believed to have moved to Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State in 2012 when they broke away from Boko Haram.
Mr Sani lamented the poor response and support by some of the governors in the North-west region for not providing adequate support using the available resource in their domain to support the security agencies in addressing the security situation in their respective states.
The former lawmaker said, unlike other states where governors support the security agencies with logistics, in Kaduna, the gesture has not been noticed.
“The Kaduna government has not done well in tackling the insecurity and no (adequate) support for the security agencies operating in the state and some of his (the governor) utterances have made the terrorists move into Kaduna.
“The governor is not proactive to security in terms of support, the security situation could not have been to this level if the governor and his colleagues in the affected states use the available resources of their state to help the security agencies, Mr Sani said.
“There is a limit to what he (the governor) can say about the security situation, as a governor, he doesn’t have control of the Army, and the Police but he has the political leverage of access to them and supporting them,” he added.
He said only two local government areas are safe in Kaduna – Kaduna North and Kaduna South, even there, Mr Sani said the outskirts of the town are not safe.
“The government has failed over the years, and the success against the war on terror is very minimal. There was no successful operation to rescue the mass numbers of people in captivity, parents and relatives are left to pay the ransom to secure the release of their loved ones,” he added.
The former lawmaker said this is happening despite Kaduna being the state with the largest location of military and defence apparatus in the country.
“When I was in the Senate, I continuously and consistently raised a motion about the situation, but people like the governor and his likes portrayed me as someone undermining the development of the state and exaggerating the situation,” he said.
“Nothing special about the letter written to the President by the governor. Kaduna State has been under the siege of bandits for many years. Right now, it’s the hub of the terrorist group and kidnapping business.
“The letter Governor El-Rufai sent to the President is also admitting that the government has failed at all levels as, it failed to secure the lives of its people,” Mr Sani said.
“The terrorists have certainly established their government, putting structures in place, appointing leaders, collecting taxes, establishing the court, settling disputes and providing security to villagers.
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“The letter is a fact but the author of the letter is also a contributing factor to the deterioration of the security because, over the years, they shielded from telling the president the true situations in the state.”
The Kaduna State Government is yet to respond to the allegations raised by Mr Sani. The governor’s media aide, Muyiwa Adekeye, could not be immediately reached on his known phone number.
