Take issue of security as a personal obligation - Former governor Babangida Aliyu

- Alhaji Muazu Babangida-Aliyu has urged Nigerians to be security conscious

- The former governor said the issue of security should be personal to everyone

- He called for the establishment of intelligent communities

The chairman, Board of Trustees of Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation, Alhaji Muazu Babangida-Aliyu, has urged all Nigerians to take the issue of security as a personal responsibility.

Babangida-Aliyu made the appeal on Monday, July 30, in Kaduna during a 2-day roundtable on the escalating conflicts and insecurity in the north.

He said: "Wherever you see security and tranquillity it’s because everybody takes security as his responsibility. When you see anything new in your community or environment you should report to the appropriate authority for action to be taken."

The former governor of Niger stressed the need to have what he called “intelligent communities” using the traditional institutions and individual efforts to assist the security agencies.

He said that the programme, organised by the Foundation was aimed at finding solutions to the escalating conflicts and insecurity in the north.

“We want to see what has gone wrong and who is to be doing what between the state and federal government, what needs to be done with regards to Boko Haram, banditry, the herdsmen clashes and why it is limited to the north,” he said.

Babangida-Aliyu added that the roundtable would also x-ray those instigating the crisis from outside the region.

“These are some of the things we come today to look at and make some recommendations to those who must take the actions, but most importantly for the citizen to internalize that we are all security officers.

“Any person you see residing in your state has a reason to be there, so own him so that they contribute to the development of your environment. We must be reading our security reports, we must be proactive in terms of security,” he added.

Also, the Emir of Birnin Gwari, Alhaji Zubairu Maigwari called on all Nigerians to be stakeholders in the fight against insecurity.

“Particularly our communities must agree that we have a stake and we should participants in ensuring security around us; we cannot leave everything to government. The criminals are there in our forests and our intelligence reports will help the security agencies to flush them out,” he said.

The emir acknowledged that security personnel have been responding very well to the security challenges in his domain and called for the support of the people as the security agencies cannot be everywhere.

He called on northerners “to really sit up and face the reality; we cannot just wait for government, as they are doing their side of responsibility, we should also do our own.”

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Maigwari stressed that apart from the security of citizens, focus should also be given to food security.

"We are afraid that if farmers cannot go to their farms gradually we will be heading to more security challenges,” the emir stressed.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Army on Saturday, July 28, paraded four robbery suspects it arrested in Felele area of Lokoja, Kogi state.

The public relation officer of the Command Army Records, Lokoja, Captain Nick Ejeh, while parading the suspects said that they were in military uniform when they were arrested.

The suspects , according to him are Japhet Ataem, Saviour Daower, Joseph Usar and Isaac Danold, all from Guma Local Government Area of Benue.

Robbers return firearms to Nigerian Police on NAIJ.com TV