By Our Reporter
The Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures in Nigeria (CSSLN) have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists and enemies of the nation.
The conference made the urge as part of their resolution during its last meeting, Sunday, in Katsina State.
Chairman of the Conference and Speaker, Bauchi State House of Assembly, Abubakar Suleiman, while making the call at the end of their third yearly meeting, said it was part of their five-point communiqué at the end of their eight-hour deliberations.
“We call on President Buhari to declare bandits as terrorists and enemies of the state. The conference has observed all the activities carried out by the bandits as containing the same mode of operations used by terrorists.
“The Conference also decried the state of insecurity in the country and resolved to work out legislative frameworks, to complement the efforts of the Federal Government to address the security challenges in the country.
“In addition, the Conference also resolved to make appropriate laws to address the fundamental issues that breed insecurity in the land, as well as create employment for the youths and curb the menace of insecurity in the country”, Suleiman said.
CSSLN further commended governors who gave their assents to the fund management bills passed by their respective state Assemblies and called on those yet to do so to expedite action on the bill for effective implementation of financial autonomy for the state legislatures and judiciary.
The host governor, Masari, had on Saturday added his voice to the growing call for bandits to be labelled terrorists. Katsina is one of the epicenters in the nation’s Northwest where banditry and other criminal activities reign supreme, leaving many citizens traumatized.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Masari said that the security agencies were doing their best at tackling the state of insecurity nationwide but the Federal Government ought to adopt more measures towards resolving the problem.
The governor identified the 1975 Local Government Reforms as a fundamental factor engendering current security issues in the nation and also urged participants at the conference to adopt certain measures being implemented by Katsina to check the state of insecurity.
“The Katsina State government decided to review the system and bring on board the traditional institutions and other relevant stakeholders to participate directly in security decisions and management.
“We reviewed the state local government law and we have created three-tier security committees across the 34 Local Government areas, to provide security agencies with useful information and assist ineffective policing and ensure arrest of offenders and hand them over to the appropriate authorities.
“We also adopted the Security Containment Order, which is another milestone achievement recorded in the security subsector as well as community conflict resolution centres across the state for civil and non-criminal cases, to reduce congestion in the courts.”
