The recent raid on a train station in the Igueben LGA of Edo State, during which several individuals were kidnapped by armed men, has alarmed PDP presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar.
He then demanded that the federal government support local and state policing as the first line of defense.
In a statement released on Sunday from his media office, Atiku referred to the incident as the most recent in a long list of egregious security lapses that had gone unheard of in our country’s history.
The former vice president suggested that the Constitution might need to be changed to permit state and local law enforcement to act as a first line of defense.
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He added that the nation’s security system “must give intelligence gathering and crime prevention a larger importance than our existing reactive strategy.”
Atiku declared: “It is unacceptable for terrorists to organize assaults of this sort, gather weapons and ammunition, get finance, and move numerous people across expansive areas without being seen by the security forces.”
He promoted the use of tracking technology to limit the ability of terrorists to launch attacks across the nation, as well as limiting the free flow of light weapons and assault rifles across the West African sub-region and through our borders and lowering the number of street children without access to education.
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He added that by “developing the economy to create jobs for large numbers of unemployed Nigerians,” “the pool from which these terrorists recruit people for their evil actions” will be diminished.
