It’ll take years to eradicate banditry in Northern Nigeria – Sultan

Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammad Abubakar, has said that it will take decades for the North-West to be free from the menacing security challenge.

The Sultan spoke on Monday in Katsina at the ‘Inaugural North West Peace and Security Summit’.

In his address, the Sultan said: “What we must do is challenge these bandits because we all know the consequences of banditry and insurgency on our lives.

“But it will take decades to get out of it if at all we get out of it. We all know the consequences and the problems.

The monarch expressed the readiness of traditional rulers in the region to collaborate with security agencies and northern governors to combat banditry and insurgency.

“I believe that at the end of the summit, proposals to bring insurgency to the barest minimum for people to go about their lives and businesses would be arrived at.”

The event was attended by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, who represented President Bola Tinubu, former President Muhammadu Buhari, governors of the seven states in the north-west geopolitical zone, service chiefs, and the Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mr Kayode Egbetokun.