TheCable

Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), says his administration will discuss with governors of Kogi, Niger, Kaduna and Nasarawa states on how to tackle cross-border crimes.

On Monday, the minister said on assumption of office in August, he was told of plans by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) to form a security bloc with neighbouring states. 

He said the process could not move forward due to a series of election petitions concerning most of the governors.

“We need the support of Nasarawa state, Kogi state; we need the support of Niger state and Kaduna state. We need to work majorly with Kaduna state and Niger,” he said.

“FCT will host the four states to fully implement the cooperation. If we don’t do that, it is going to be difficult.

“There is no day or week you will not hear that bandits attacked residents in Niger, bandits struck in Kaduna, and when that happens, where do they go to?

“They go to the forest bordering FCT and the neighbouring states.”

The minister said the collaboration would first examine what form of security architecture would be fitting for all the states, without jeopardising the peculiarities of each state.

“We will look at what will work between FCT and Kogi, we will look at what will work with Niger and of course Kaduna state,” he added.

“Are we going to form a joint security outfit? Or just sharing intelligence? It will also mean that not only FCT will be providing the needed logistics support and all that, but also the affected states, to fight crime.”