TheCable

Lucky Irabor, chief of defence staff, has assured Nigerians of the commitment of the new service chiefs to deal decisively with bandits and other criminals terrorising the country.

Speaking on Tuesday when he led the service chiefs on a courtesy visit to Bello Matawalle, governor of Zamfara, Irabor said Nigerians will no longer have anything to fear in terms of security.

“We are aware of the expectations of Nigerians and we are here to deal with the bad people; it is time that we go back to the good times where people live happily and secured,” he said.

“We will use all our powers to deal with those who do not want us to live in peace.”

Irabor commended the efforts of Matawalle and the traditional rulers toward ensuring peace in the state.

In his remarks, Matawalle explained that he had always tried to remove politics when it comes to the issue of security.

He told the service chiefs that the peace and dialogue initiative adopted by the state was working, saying it has saved many kidnap victims at no cost to the state government.

The governor, however, called for the deployment of more troops to deal with recalcitrant bandits.

“With many of the recalcitrant bandits in our bushes, there is need for the deployment of more personnel to tackle these bad elements that are giving us sleepless nights,” Matawalle said.

“We also want to appeal for more fighting equipment which should be located at all strategic movement points of the bandits in order to deny them pathway while the onslaught is being carried out against them.

“If these are in place, the troops should go into the bushes and hunt for the bandits instead of waiting until they struck.”

According to him, such measures would facilitate the elimination of all the bandits operating in the north-west zone.