By Kolawole Ojebisi
Governor of Katsina State, has said he has failed in his primary responsibility of safeguarding the lives and property of residents in his state. Governor Masari made the comments while speaking with journalists in Katsina.
The Ex-Speaker registered his displeasure at his helplessness to quell banditry in the state adding that the people has never had rest since he came on board as governor.
He said the bandits were “worse than animals” because they kill indiscriminately.
“I don’t know what to tell them. I cannot look at them in the face because we have failed to protect them, contrary to our pledge to ensure the security of lives and property throughout the state,” he said.
Masari said the behaviour of the bandits is horrible as they kill indiscriminately showing no regard for the sanctity of human life.
“I never expected the behaviour and the attitude of people living in the forests, the bandits, whose behaviour is worse than that of animals. In the forest, a lion or a tiger kills only when it is hungry and it doesn’t kill all animals, it only kills the one it can eat at a time.
“But what we see here is that bandits come to town, spray bullets, kill indiscriminately for no purpose and no reason whatsoever, like the recent massacre of people at Faskari and parts of Dandume local government area. They just killed the people. How can a human being behave the way an animal cannot behave?”
The governor added there are no innocent people in the forests.
“Our role is to complement efforts of the security agencies for which I believe we are doing nothing less than 90 per cent in terms of whatever is expected of us, based on resources available to us,” he said.
Recall that Governor Masari was the first governor to reportedly sign an agreement with bandits, a move he made to restore peace to his violence-torn state. He cancelled all vigilantes and volunteer groups to honour his part of the peace deal. He had since pulled out of the deal because the bandits failed to fulfil their part of the peace deal.
