Insecurity: Benue govt raises alarm, says police are overstretched
- The Benue government has declared that police have been overstretched in the fight against insecurity in the state
- Benson Abounu, the state deputy governor, made this known on Tuesday, February 2
- Abounu, however, lauded President Buhari-led government for recruiting more police officers
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The government of Benue has raised the alarm over the influx of armed herders and an increase in deadly attacks in the state.
Channels TV reports that the government lamented that the police are overstretched in tackling the insecurity in the state.
Legit.ng gathered that the state deputy governor, Benson Abounu, in an interview on Channels Television breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, said some local governments in the state have as low as five police officers.
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He said:
“The police are trying their best but the unfortunate situation is that the police is overstretched. Everybody knows this. The number of personnel is not enough.
“In a whole local you will be surprised that there are just about five officers, some 10. This is where the problem is. They are overstretched. So, you are calling on one police officer to tackle one issue here but some other issues are taking place elsewhere that requires his attention."
The deputy governor, however, commended the federal government’s effort in recruiting more officers.
He said:
“I am happy that the presidency is rising up to this. Two years or so back, about 10,000 officers were recruited and I understand that there’s another process of recruitment going on now. That is the way to go about it."
The state government had earlier raised an alarm after observing an influx of ‘heavily-armed’ herdsmen at its border with Nasarawa state.
Abounu said an investigation into the herdsmen’s activities was prompted by an alarm raised by Nasarawa state governor, Abdullahi Sule, who briefed President Muhammadu Buhari about the activities of Boko Haram insurgents along his state’s borders with Benue.
The deputy governor said although the investigation is still ongoing, the state government has been able to ascertain that there appears to be a massive deployment of herdsmen with their cattle on the brink of River Benue but on the Nasarawa state bank.
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The state government also observed that the herdsmen were heavily armed; many of them with Ak-47 rifles.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that the governor of Kano state, Umar Abdullahi Ganduje, said the only way to bring a lasting solution to the farmers-herders crisis is to enable a law that bans the movement of cattle from the north to the south.
It was reported that Ganduje gave this suggestion while speaking to journalists in Daura town of Katsina state when he and his All Progressives Congress (APC) colleagues visited President Muhammadu Buhari.
Source: Legit.ng
