The Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, has announced that his administration intends to enlist 7,000 young people to aid security forces in the fight against insecurity.
Banditry, kidnapping, and a variety of other security issues are problems in Nigeria’s north-western region of Kaduna.
But Governor Sani, who has only been in office for about three months, says his administration will involve young people in the fight against crime as part of efforts to stop the tide.
The governor, who said he has been an advocate of state police even as a lawmaker in the Senate, noted that the recruitment process would commence soon.
“Coming to Kaduna, I also revived the Kaduna State Vigilance Service,” Governor Sani said on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
“As we are speaking right now, in the next week, we are going to recruit at least 7,000 youths who are going to be running our Kaduna State Vigilance Service.”
According to him, the development was further necessitated by the fact that “security agencies are lacking the boots” in their bid to tackle insecurity.
“And of course, they need the support of our local vigilance service. As of today, we have only 2,000 but we are recruiting another 7,000 to make them 9,000,” the former lawmaker explained.
“And I am happy both the commissioner of police, the director of DSS, and even the GOC here in Kaduna, are all involved in making sure that all our vigilance service is having adequate training. We are using the police college to train them and that is very key.”
Asides from that, he stated that the state government is working with other stakeholders including religious bodies to ensure the state is rid of criminality.
He said there are also talks with governors in the north to finetune ways of taming insecurity.
“As I am speaking with you, we are on the same page. We are trying our best to make sure we have a joint operation,” the governor said.