Dikko Umaru Radda, the Katsina State Governor has urged the Federal Government to permit individuals to buy and own weapons including AK-47 rifles and RPGs for self-defence.
The governor, who spoke during a media chat on Friday, October 20 in Abuja, had argued that if the bandits causing havoc across the country could have free access to the market to purchase weapons of their choice then individuals should be permitted to own theirs to defend themselves.
According to him:
“Negotiating with bandits is an unwise decision from my perspective, but if I am at the point of advantage- that is if the bandits come out and say, ‘Look, we are dropping our weapons, let us sit down and deliberate’― then we could restore them back into society.”
Radda had further said: “The governors are the perceived chief security officers of our states, but we do not have the power to authorise the military, police, or civil defence. They get their orders from above.”
“In our own efforts, we came up with the intelligence unit within the Katsina Community Watch Corps. This intelligence unit, even the corps members are not familiar with them. The reason for setting it up is to check the overabundance of the Watch Corps and to also garner information.”
