The National Council of Traditional Rulers of Nigeria has called on the Federal government to urgently address the nation’s security challenges.
The traditional rulers, who made the appeal at the end of a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja on Thursday, expressed concern over cases of kidnappings and banditry in some parts of the country.
The Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, who spoke on behalf of the traditional rulers, said their meeting with the president harped on the need for the government to urgently curb he menace.
He said: “We gathered ourselves and feel that yes, there is a need for us to come and let the President know that the situation is telling very hard on our people and there is a need to take urgent and immediate steps to actually check the situation.”
According to him, the royal fathers have decided to go back to the old tradition of identifying visitors in their domains and also share intelligence with security agencies, so as to ameliorate the situation.
He said they offered to help the government address the problem by sharing intelligence with security agencies.
“We commiserate with the President on current happenings, especially banditry activities, killings, kidnapping and destruction of lives and property in the country.
“We discovered that the situation is getting too much on our people, our land, our culture and tradition. So, we feel as traditional leaders, we are close to our people and we know what is happening to them.
“So, we narrated stories of this banditry and other crimes to the President, as we see it in our domains.
“We requested that the president should consider and put us in a position whereby we can directly or indirectly help the situation so as to curtail these excessive insecurity activities.’’
The Etsu Nupe commended the Buhari administration for its efforts aimed at uplifting the quality of life of the citizens.
