Lakurawa: Intelligence has failed – Shekarau on new terrorist group

Former Kano State governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, has blamed lack of proper intelligence gathering for the emergence of new terrorist group, Lakurawa.

Shekarau said the federal and state governments can address the issue of new terrorist groups emerging through proper intelligence gathering and community policing.

About six people have reportedly lost their lives, with scores injured after angry youths attacked Fulani residents in Mera community, Augie Local Government Area, Kebbi State.

SaharaReporters reports that the youths reportedly carried out the attack on Sunday in response to allegations linking some Fulani individuals to recent bandit raids in the area.

According to the report, the violence was allegedly triggered after a survivor of Friday’s bandit attack informed the community youths that he recognised some Fulani faces among the attackers, known locally as “Lakurawa.”

Featuring on Channels TV’s programme, Sunrise Daily, Shekarau said: “This is giving us an impression that our intelligence gathering is still below average because if the intelligence have been up and doing from all the agencies, then this thing should have been discovered earlier than now. The new insurgents have already started attacking communities by giving them all kinds of nightmares and collecting levies.

“I think we have had enough of insurgents we are battling with, so for them to have come in from neighbour countries like Niger Republic into the borders of Sokoto and Kebbi, I think we need to do a lot of restructuring of the security architecture.

“When I was a governor, I always meet with the security committee and I directed all the local government to meet on the last Thursday of every month. The state security committee, the local government security will meet and report back whatever they have.

“If government will initiate a proper community intelligence gathering there will be peace.We did in Kano and the people trust this arrangement far more, the traditional institution was greatly involved and we empowered them.

“One of the major things to do is to improve the nature of intelligence gathering. The number of police, Army, and military is not enough for them to be all over the place. Through intelligence gathering you will be able to identify informants who are working with insurgents.

“If we want to address this issue, the government (Federal and State) must work together to improve intelligence gathering through community watch and policing. Up till now, we have not been able to produce some of these things.”