Governor Aminu Masari on Thursday led Residents of Katsina state to seek
divine intervention against banditry, kidnapping and cattle rustling
bedeviling the state.
The three-day prayer session which started about 10:00 am lasted for
three hours at a Jumat Mosque in the state capital where over three
hundred persons mostly memorizers of the glorious Qur’an dominated the
session.
According to stakeholders, the prayer has heralded the general concern
by the members of various communities across the state towards ending
the menace.
They further described it as a gesture aimed at letting security forces
on the ground to understand that members of the public are with them in
their bid to oust the miscreants.
The state deputy governor, Engineer Mannir Yakubu, the state
Commissioner of Information, Culture and Home Affairs, Katsina state,
Alhaji Abdulkareem Yahayya Sirika, the Special Adviser to the governor
on Security, Ibrahim Ahmad Katsina, and the Permanent Secretary, Katsina
Ministry of Religious Affairs, Mohammed Lawal Matazu are among the
dignitaries that attended the prayer session.
It would be recalled that the Nigerian Army on Wednesday assured
citizens of its determination to continuously work with other security
agencies to enhance peace and security across the country.
The assurance comes under the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari to
the military to stamp out bandits terrorizing the Northwestern region of
the country.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai disclosed this
on Wednesday in Faskari, one of the front line LGAs of Katsina state
during this year’s Nigerian Army Day Celebration, NADCEL.
The celebration which was hitherto planned to hold in Jos, the Plateau
state capital, was moved to Faskari in order to boost the ongoing
Military Operations against banditry and other related crimes.
This particular exercise which is one of the far-reaching decisions of
the Senior Officers Conference is according to Buratai out not only to
check banditry in Katsina but also in the entire Northwest region and
central parts of the country.