Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu has accused traditional rulers in Katsina state, Nigeria of sponsoring bandits in the state.
Shehu made the claim in a chat with Sunrise Daily, a Channels Television programme on Monday, in the nation’s capital – Abuja. He alleged that traditional rulers do help gunmen in the state evade attack by security agencies.
Katsina which is the home state of President Muhammadu Buhari has faced a spate of violent attacks by gunmen who had wreaked havoc in the state in recent past. Their attacks have resulted in loss of lives and property.
The media aid of the president said there are individuals who are profiting from the chaos and are determined to frustrate attempts at curbing them.
He said, “It is not that we are making direct accusations on anyone but it is also true that even in the president’s native state of Katsina, some traditional rulers have been found complicit in collaboration with the bandits to harm their own people.”
“In neighbouring Zamfara, emirs and district heads, quite a number of them have been swept out of office. The thing is there are beneficiaries of whatever rotten system you have.
“At some point, the Nigerian Air Force had to put a number of aircraft in Katsina, they are still there. In the early part of that operation attacking Zamfara which then was the epicentre.
“They realised that once aircraft took off from Katsina airport, before it got to Zamfara for operation, telephone calls would have been made and targets would have disappeared. In the end we were forced to be flying from distant places like Kaduna and Kano in order to undertake operations in Zamfara.”
Shehu said the president does not have the solutions to all the problems confronting the country.
“All of us as citizens have a duty to the nation to provide information to our armed forces,” he said.