Zango Local Government Area of Katsina State, has distributed 75 walkie talkies, three vehicles and 12 motorcycles to security operatives to boost the fight against trans-border crimes.
The Chairman of the Council, Alhaji Ahmed Aliyu, stated this when members of the Correspondents’ Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Katsina Chapter visited the area on media tour.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that Zango is among the local governments sharing a border with Niger Republic.
The chairman said that the LG shares a border with Niger Republic covering about 70 kilometers.
According to him, the area has only two border points, one at Yardaje and the other one at Zango where the security agents control movement of people and goods.
He, however, revealed that there were a lot of illegal routes where some people use camels and other means of transportation to convey goods into the area.
Having realised that, he said, the council discussed with local authorities in the border country where they agreed to join hands together to fight the trans-border crimes, including drugs trafficking.
“We have recently seized a shop of a drug dealer and converted it to a vigilante group office and handed him to the relevant authority,” he said.
Aliyu said the walkie talkies were distributed to members of the vigilante groups in border communities of both countries to work with their security agents to curb the menace.
He said that the measure has contributed immensely in checking trans-border crimes such as kidnapping, banditry and cattle rustling.
The chairman also said that the council distributed Irish potato and sweet potato seedlings worth N2m to farmers as part of the measures to boost food security in the area. (NAN)
