Governor Aminu Masari of Katsina State has insisted that it is ridiculous that people are not defending themselves against bandit attacks. He said Katsina residents cannot simply rely on security agencies to solve the problem of insecurity in their location.

The Governor said this while speaking at the Katsina police headquarters on Friday, June 25. According to the governor, “Security is our responsibility. Why are we surrendering our responsibility to some people? I can’t see how more committed a police or military officer can be than any of you.

Why should I sit in my village and be only making telephone calls without doing anything? Every bandit, every criminal has an address, has a location, and they’re human beings like us. The only difference is that they’ve taken arms against us; does it mean we’ve nothing to take against them?

Do we mean we should vacate all our villages, all our farms, all our houses, and surrender them to bandits, and wait for police officer Emeka all the way from Enugu to come to Katsina and rescue me? This is ridiculous. Why? I think part of what this Katsina initiative needs to do is to go round all these local governments, let us talk to the people, and defend yourselves.”