We Want Military To Decimate Bandits Before Rainy Season, Says Northern Governors

The Chairman of Northern Governors Forum and Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong, has said that Northern governors expect that bandits would be decimated in the region before rainy season.

The Plateau governor said this in Abuja, expressing delight that the military will now be able to deploy Tucano jets against terrorists following their recent re-categorisation.

He lamented that kidnapping has become more prominent in Plateau State.

“Well, in terms of security, some of the issues we raised with the President last year, we’re already beginning to see progress. You’ll recall that we mentioned that we are very eager to see the use of the Tucano jets so that we can have massive engagement with all the bandits.

“Part of it was also the status of some of these bandits around and you can see that already the federal government has described them as terrorists, the military is now going to do full engagement. These were some of the issues that were raised in our communique in Kaduna.

“So, we’re already beginning to see and we’re also getting prepared in the north for such action, that’s what we’re expecting. Let us do massive action that will ensure that within the first quarter of this year, people will have hope that we’re going to live peacefully in all the parts of the north because we’re expecting these actions before the next rainy season,” he said.

Lalong said as an agrarian region, the Plateau State government wants its citizens to be able to access their farm as insecurity has kept them away.

“These are some of the issues that we’re meeting and preparing for.

“The last part of it is the engagement of traditional rulers. Of course, we’ve sent a bill to the National Assembly on the role of traditional rulers and we’re hoping that we’ll pursue that on behalf of Northern governors to ensure that this bill gets through so that traditional rulers will also complement the efforts of the government in addressing insecurity in their various states,” he said.