By Christopher Oji
Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, has accused political saboteurs as being responsible for the recent Kaba jailbreak.
The governor said some politicians sponsored the attack to discredit the watertight security put in place by him.
The governor who was represented by the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Kingsley Fanwon, at a press conference in Lagos on Friday, said the government was looking into the issue to fish out those who were sabotaging the state.
He said the attack was primarily to rubbish Bello’s security architecture and his political strategies.
He said there was intelligence as regards the attack, which he communicated to the military, after which he was assured that 20 military men would be stationed to counter any aggression.
“People should not also undermine the plain fact that there are high-profile criminal inmates in the Custodial centre and their members would do everything devilish possible to free them. That is why we want government to do more to protect the correctional facilities.”
He said the jailbreak had taught the state a great lesson that would propel it to do more in rejigging the security architecture of the state.
“Despite all odds, the state remains one of the best and safest states in the country as regards security matters. This rubbish will make us to be more formidable in our war against crimes and criminality.
“Before 2015, Kogi State was regarded as kidnappers and criminals den where people claimed that passing through the state was like walking through the shadow of death. Surprisingly, when Governor Yahaya Bello took over as Governor, he invited stakeholders who brainstormed on solutions to the security problems after which they mapped out strategies that are still working for the state.
“First, he discovered that security agencies were not able to move around the state because of lack of patrol vehicles. We bought 240 patrol vans and we assigned ten to each local government, which has helped the security agencies to patrol the local governments and the entire state.
“We also incorporated local vigilantes and hunters into our state security architecture who work in synergy with security agencies. We also discovered that the locals were not giving information to the police for fear of being implicated. The governor put in place methods by which the locals can give out information without being betrayed,” he added.
According to him, the governor de-emphasised the toga of relating a particular crime to a particular ethic group, adding that if a criminal is arrested, he is treated squarely according to the crime he committed.
“We don’t want to hear Fulani herdsmen. What we know is that a criminal is a criminal and must be treated as such,” he said.