30,000 insurgents, families surrender in North East

Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, in Kaduna, yesterday, said over 30,000 insurgents and their families have, so far, surrendered in the ongoing kinetic security measure in the North East.

Boss Mustapha’s keynote address was read by the Director, Special Service, Office of the SGF, 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 is concerned with security challenges across the country and has been working assiduously to reduce them to the barest minimum quickly, adding that 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.

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“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,” he said.

He 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 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 sensitise 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,” he added.

To address the issue of confidentiality associated with sharing credible information to the security agents by the civilian populace, the AGF hinted that a platform was being established in six states, including Kaduna for sharing credible information among the stakeholders for enhanced security.

SUN