Former minister calls for military structure in every state

By Oluchi Ihediuche

Former Minister of Commerce, Founder/Chairman Mustafa Bello Foundation is a calling on president Mohammadu Buhari to build and assign Military structure to handle security challenges directly in every state of the federation.

While the President who is the Commander-In-Chief oversees their various operations through chain of the various commands, according to him was to effectively curb the growing rate of banditry along other criminal activities in the states especially on the Nigerian roads.

In an open letter to the president, the former minister expressed concern about the growing level of abduction on Nigerian roads calling for a quick intervention to stop such occurrence.

“Just yesterday by the Zungeru Bridge 150 bandits in number on 50 motorcycles at 3 persons on each ambushed a public transport Bus belonging to the Niger State Transport Authority and abducted about 21 poor passengers from a village. Up till this hour, no reports on their whereabouts yet.

“If commuters can be intercepted at such a strategic location, overseen by a Military post just across, on the major artery that connects the North-West, South-West to the North then clearly very soon that corridor will become impassable if a complete reconnaissance is not carried to establish their nucleus and manage it promptly. Perhaps their ultimate target may be the newly completed Zungeru Dam. We must put every measure necessary in place to forestall such from happening.

He added that assigning military structure to each state makes tackling the surge of banditry and insurgency easier

“I call on Mr. President to please assign every Military structure in every state the responsibility to handle the challenges in their various states directly while the Commander-In-Chief oversees the various operations through the chain of the various commands. Perhaps that may make management of the Operations easier from the “Situation Room”!

He however thanked the president for his swift intervention to dislodge bandits taking over their land while drawing the presidents attention to criminals activities in recent times.

“I send compliments to Your Excellency and thank you very much for the timely and prompt intervention on the distress call we made to you in December 2020 on the need to take swift action to dislodge the bandits that took over the large chunk of land from Kontagora through Beri to Kamfanin-Bobi to the East and from Kontagora through Masuga to Dogon-Fadama in the North, making that uninhabited space a sanctuary from which they were launching assaults on all nearby towns and villages including Kontagora.

“However, Mr. President there is this “Hot Spot” between Tegina-Katako-Yakila-Zungeru that for the last 30-years we have known to habit these bandits, infact specifically the valley to the East of Katako-Yakila axis remained a hive for these bandits that launching a “Special Operation” all over these valleys and hills behind may reveal a lot more on why they’ve been in this place for this period of time.

Oluchi Ihediuche