Garuba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity to President Muhammedu Buhari has said that it had become increasing difficult to fight crime because some traditional rulers and residents in some rural towns in Nigeria were abating criminals to commit crime and other criminal activities.
The Buhari administration has been criticised for not doing enough to tackle the security challenges bedevilling the country. In recent times Nigeria has witnessed an increase in killings, attacks and banditry, especially in several Northern States which has led to the deaths of hundreds of people.
Last week in Katsina State, a billboard bearing the picture of President Buhari and the Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari was burned by protesters in Yantumaki town in Danmusa local government area of the state.
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Buhari is a native of Katsina, while the residents of the town were aggrieved over the continued attacks, kidnapping and killings by bandits.
But speaking in a television programme, Monday, Garuba said the President was doing his best to solve the problem, noting that the criminal were finding it easy to operate in several places because some people were supplying them with information and aiding them in crime because of their selfish interest.
He said the Buhari administration had piriotised security which had led to a reduction in crime since it assumed office, stressing that the situation was worse under the previous administration where several local governments was under the control of insurgents.
According to him, “Some traditional rulers are abating them for their selfish interests; these criminals are informed when a raiding airplane take off in the airport, so before they get to the location these criminals are nowhere to be found. So what happens now, they take off in other states.
“The President is doing his best to solve the security challenges. When he came on board it was worse. Even in Abuja here people could sleep, go to church, but now they are not controlling any Local government area in Nigeria unlike in the past.
“We have confidence in the armed forces and they are making effort for us to be safe,” Garuba said.
Garuba further stressed that the President had always supported the armed forces in the discharge of their duties and expect more synergy among the security agencies.
Also speaking on the programme, President- General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, John Nwodo, lamented the spate of impunity in the country, while berating the Buhari administration for failing to obey the rule of law and the Constitution governing the country, saying that it was a setback for the nation’s democracy.
He berated Nigeria’s present day youths for been docile and charged them to learn to hold the government accountable while in office.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves where we are now as a nation. Look at our electoral system; ballot boxes are snatched by Policemen, and votes inflated no body is punished. Our democracy is not giving the people what they want.
“People should stand up; the youths must be prepared to stand up for what is right; that is how we did it in our time in the university under the military,” Nwodo said.
