Governor Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna State has kicked against allowing local security outfits like the Western Nigeria Security Network, codenamed Amotekun and vigilantes in other states to bear arms.
He made the declaration in a Channels Television programme Sunrise Daily on Thursday.
Giving them arms cannot solve the state’ security problems, the governor said, adding that the local security outfits do not have the necessary firearms to fight bandits.
He said Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State’s plan to arm Amotekun was a simplistic approach to combating bandits.
El-Rufai said, “The vigilantes are no match for the sophisticated non-state actors. Local security networks can only provide local intelligence. They do not have the firearms to face these guys (bandits). These guys sometimes even rout the military. So, people are speaking simplistically when they say they want to get an AK-47 for Amotekun. You do not know what you are dealing with.
“We know, these guys are very well-armed, they are getting arms that are sophisticated. Sometimes they outgun the military. Those vigilantes are not up to scratch.”
According to him, with the deployment of special security forces now pounding the terrorists, bandits, cattle rustlers and kidnappers, attacks of innocent people in the state had mellowed down.
He stated: “The latest tactic deployed by the military is reducing the level of attacks in the state and Kaduna will be safer if the methods currently being used have been put in a few years ago.
“I’m happy to say in the last six weeks, there has been a change because the military has now deployed Special Forces here,” he said.
“And they have taken the bandits out. The Air Force is bombing them. All the things that we asked for two to three years ago are now happening.
“If that had been done three years ago, we’d be in a completely different environment. Because three years ago, they were much fewer in numbers, we knew their camps, we knew everything about them.”
“We know, these guys are very well-armed, they are getting arms that are sophisticated. Sometimes they outgun the military. Those vigilantes are not up to scratch.”
