Following the inability of state governors to mobilise security men in their states to fight the increasing insurgency and crisis across the country, Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu of Niger State on Monday said that most governors who are supposed to be the chief scecurity officers of their states have become “toothless bulldogs”.
Aliyu made the remarks at the opening of a five-day Capacity Building Seminar for Magistrates and Sharia Court judges.
This came on the heels of the recent bombing of the Jumat Mosque in Kano city last Friday, during which several lives were lost.
According to him: “We (governors) need some sort of respect from the federating units.
“We are now toothless bulldogs.
“Many Commissioners of Police no longer take directives from their governors.
“With the increasing spate of insecurity in many parts of the North, it is now imperative that state governments should be allowed to have their own police.
“Earlier opposition to the issue by the Northern States Governors Forum was because we felt the federal police will be in a position to provide adequate security for lives and property in the states.”
Governor Aliyu, who is also the Chairman of the Northern States Governors Forum, said that all the 19 governors in the region and top traditional rulers across the Northern part of the country will soon meet to take a joint position on the escalating insecurity in the region and the issue of state police.
He added: “It is time that all hands must come together to fight insecurity because an injury to one is injury to all.”
Aliyu described the Kano mosque bombing as not only barbaric but wicked.
He said no true Muslim will bomb a place of worship.