Ganawuri (Plateau) – A chieftain of the PDP, Chief Joseph Gumbari, said on Friday in Ganawuri, near Jos in Plateau that creation of state police was the only way to end the deadly attacks in North Central Nigeria.

Hundreds of people have been killed in mainly night attacks in communities in North Central Nigeria in recent years.

Gumbari, who was also a former National Assembly member, said that allowing states to own their police forces would curb the incessant attacks on rural communities.

“State police populated by locals, is the only way to end the massive attacks on rural dwellers because personnel of the Special Task Force are usually at checkpoints on the highways at night.

“The attacks happen in the interiors and the attackers would have done their worst and ran into the bushes before soldiers start rushing to the scenes in vehicles that sometimes cannot even enter the interiors,’’ Gumbari said.

Gumbari, a former Chief Whip of the Kaduna State House of Assembly and currently the Chairman of the PDP in Kaduna South Senatorial District, spoke  at Ganawuri in Plateau, shortly after visiting the scene of midnight attacks in some villages in Kaduna State on the Kaduna-Plateau border.

He said that it was the local populace who knew the terrain and the possible places that the attackers could escape to, pointing out that chasing the attackers was usually difficult for the locals, since they were not armed.

“Like in the particular case of these Kaura local communities, the attackers usually run to the hills. No soldier knows these hills and the caves, but the locals do.’’

The PDP chieftain said that the gallantry of the civilian youth group, code-named “Civilian JTF” on checking the activities of Boko Haram in the North-East should convince government on the need to set up such groups and empower them constitutionally to protect their communities.

He said that state police, when established, would be expected to help conventional security men to secure local communities by giving leads on the operational modes of the attackers.

Gumbari expressed his surprise that some state governors had consistently rejected the idea of establishing state police.

“I find this attitude very ironic and hypocritical because such governors have their local vigilante teams which they either call `Hisbah’ or `Yan-banga’.

“Time has come for us to face realities and formalise these institutions to help the society.”

He cautioned northern governors against playing politics with calls for state police, noting that the institution was crucial to protecting vulnerable rural dwellers.

The politician argued that attacks in Birnin-Gwari and other parts of Kaduna State would have been averted if there were local vigilante teams legally mandated and armed to comb the bushes for the suspected attackers.

Gumbari also spoke on the incessant violence between farmers and herdsmen, wondering why the two groups should be hostile to each when they should enjoy a mutually-beneficial relationship.

“The farmer needs the cow dung as manure for his crops, while the herdsman needs the grass and the sticks of harvested crops for his cows,’’ he noted.

NAN reports that more than 120 people were reported killed and many houses burnt when gunmen invaded villages along Ganawuri on the Kaduna and Plateau States border, two weeks ago. (NAN)