Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai has asked that residency rights of Nigerians, which demands that citizens live anywhere in the country, be respected.
He stated this on Friday in Victoria Island in Lagos at ‘Radio Now’s Urgent Conversation’ with the theme, ‘The fierce urgency of now: Tactics and strategies to pull Nigeria from the brink’.
The event which had the governor of Ekiti State and Chairman of Nigerians Governors Forum, Kayode Fayemi; the Minority Leader of the Senate, Enyinnaya Abaribe as members of the panel discussed issues bordering on activities of criminal herdsmen, bandits among others.
El-Rufai said, “Banditry is badly hurting our rural economy, driving farmers off the land, stealing their cattle, kidnapping them and their families for ransom and often killing them.
Calling on the Muhammadu Buhari-led government to live up to its constitutional responsibility of protecting the lives and properties of citizens, the Kaduna State governor regretted that anti-banditry war in Nigeria has continued to linger because the security agencies in Nigeria were under-equipped and under-staffed.
“Elite consensus must agree on four things: one – commitment to the rule of law and quick dispensation of justice, common citizenship and respect for residency rights, equal opportunity for all, respect for diversity and protection of citizenship rights guaranteed by the constitution and finally, the immediate devolution of powers to return the nation to true federation of our founding fathers” El-Rufai said.
The governor went further to say that it was necessary to create state police, get the judiciary system decentralised, among others to enable the state and federal governments to efficiently address the insecurity issue in the country.