Amid the growing concerns over the spate of insecurity in the country, the Nasarawa State Governor, Abdullahi Sule, has said that Nigeria’s military requires more resources to address the killings in the north central part of the country.
Sule, who disclosed this as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Thursday, explained that the military needs more support in the form of technology and communication, among others, to effectively deal with the situation.
The north central states of Benue and Plateau have come under a wave of attacks that left scores dead, homes destroyed and several residents displaced.
The Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia, on Monday confirmed that the death toll from the attacks on the Ukum and Logo local government areas by bandits had risen to 72.
He also urged the Federal Government to urgently step up security surveillance in Benue.
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However, Governor Sule said, “The lengthy discussion we had with the general yesterday has shown that we must introduce more resources in the form of technology, in the form of people, and then the biggest of them all, in the form of communication, to support the military.
“You know, so we need to be able to assist the military with more communication, with more information, with, so that’s the only way that they will be able to achieve this. And I think that’s what we decided we are going back to do.”
Attackers Not Nigerians
He also reiterated the position of the Benue governor that the attackers are not Nigerians.
He further said it was not that difficult to identify the criminals because they speak a different kind of Fulfulde.
“Well, it’s not that difficult to identify them because they speak a different kind of Fulfulde. They look Fulani; they don’t speak Hausa, and we have a lot of videos of them,” Sule said.
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Speaking further, he added, “You have to consider what is happening in their countries. Right now, the Republic of Niger, you know, is having its own, a lot of security challenges, economic challenges, security challenges, and some of these people cross over.
“You know, from Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Chad, and the rest of that, they look more or less alike. So it’s very difficult for anybody to identify and say, oh, they are from Mali.
“The governor of Plateau just told me 45 minutes ago that actually they were not residents in Plateau. They come from one or two places and then they attack and they go back to such places.”
He also said it was difficult to monitor Nigeria’s borders with neighbouring countries.
“You know, most of these borders we have are very porous. Technology is doing a lot, even right now; monitoring has been going on but you can’t monitor the entire border,” the governor added.