Over 30,000 Insurgents, Families Have Surrendered In North East, Says Boss Mustapha

Over 30,000 insurgents and their families have so far surrendered in the ongoing fight against terrorists in the North-East, Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha in Kaduna said.

This was contained in a keynote address read on behalf of Mustapha by the Director, Special Service, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, David Attah at a two-day stakeholders’ engagement on current security challenges in the North-West geo-political zone – Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara.

He said the Federal government was concerned with security challenges across the country and had been working assiduously to reduce them to the barest minimum.

“Tackling insecurity is one of the three priority areas of the present administration.

Some of the measures so far taken to address the security challenges in the country include an increase in budgetary allocation as well as shoring up the equipment holding of the military and other security agencies.”

“Similarly, approval was granted for the recruitment of 10,000 Police personnel for three consecutive years while their salaries have been upwardly reviewed to boost their morale, enhance productivity and elicit hard work.”

“It is therefore gratifying to note that the security situation has relatively improved across all parts of the country. The insurgents in the North-East have been decimated considerably. Over 30,000 insurgents and their families have so far surrendered.”

“I enjoined the participating stakeholders drawn from the traditional institution, religious organisations, civil society, trade union, security personnel, and other individuals and organisations whose contributions to national security have been noticed to be open to one another in their contributions within the engagement.”

“With the recent dimensions of security challenges including, human/child trafficking, baby factory syndrome, ritual killings and the like, the sanctity of the human life has been called to question.”

“The perpetrators of the evil acts live among us and are our relatives. This highlights the need for the cooperation of the communities and the whole-of-society approach to tackle insecurity.”

“This Workshop is part of the non-kinetic approaches to sensitize the communities on the need to collaborate with Government at all levels to tackle the menace of armed banditry and other related crimes in the North-West geo-political zone.”

“A platform is being established in six states including Kaduna for sharing credible information among the stakeholders for enhanced security.”

“This among others is aimed at addressing the issue of confidentiality of the information and protecting volunteers of such information going forward”, he said.