Yesterday, we brought you word that the Senate refused to ratify (and issue a permit for) Zamfara’s Governor Abubakar Abdulaziz Yari’s plan to provide arms for the state’s vigilante groups because of the somewhat obvious inherent disadvantages. The Editorial also explored the several sides to arming untrained men (psychological and combative training) even if it was for ‘self-defence’ as Governor Yari claimed.

In spite of all these, the Zamfara government has said it will not go back on its plan to arm vigilante groups because it is part of their plan to improve security at the grassroots and the arms have already been purchased and are currently at the state police headquarters. This idea to arm vigilante groups was born out of Governor Yari’s visit to Kizara village where 60 people had been killed by unknown gunmen.

Yesterday, we brought you word that the Senate refused to ratify (and issue a permit for) Zamfara’s Governor Abubakar Abdulaziz Yari’s plan to provide arms for the state’s vigilante groups because of the somewhat obvious inherent disadvantages. The Editorial also explored the several sides to arming untrained men (psychological and combative training) even if it was for ‘self-defence’ as Governor Yari claimed.

In spite of all these, the Zamfara government has said it will not go back on its plan to arm vigilante groups because it is part of their plan to improve security at the grassroots and the arms have already been purchased and are currently at the state police headquarters. This idea to arm vigilante groups was born out of Governor Yari’s visit to Kizara village where 60 people had been killed by unknown gunmen.

Special Adviser to the governor on media and information technology, Alhaji Sani Abdullahi Tsafe, on whether the government will go on despite the opposition by the Senate, said that “the issue is with the police and the state government will not say anything again until the process of acquiring the permit is accomplished”.

Under the cloak of anonymity, a senior official of the state government said the arms were awaiting “distribution to some trusted members of the vigilance groups across the state”. The exercise will be handled by a highly placed security officer,” he said, adding that “the project was initiated with the collaboration and consent of security agents”. He also said other states were doing it secretly.

“I don’t want to make an issue out of this,” he said. “This has been the practice in some parts of this country, particularly when one looks at the situation in the Niger Delta. Who arms the militants in that area who are also civilians?”

The official stated that, apart from Zamfara State, “there are some states which legislatures are currently deliberating on the issue with a view to making a law backing similar projects”. The Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) is currently working on how to come up with a common decision on the issue, he stated.

The state commissioner of police, Mr Akila Usman Gwary, did not respond to enquiries on the position of the police on the matter. Phone calls and text messages sent to him were not replied. There was also no response on the issue from Police Spokesperson, Frank Mba.

Note: the views expressed in this article are solely the opinions of the writer and do not represent the views of viewpointnigeria.

Published with kind permission from YNaija.

count | 30

Zamfara government will not back down on plans to arm civilians – YNaija