Thugs disrupt stakeholders meeting on security in Katsina
A meeting of experts including former ambassadors, retired security and high ranking officers and technocrats from Katsina state, convened to appraise the security situation in the state, has been disrupted by thugs allegedly sponsored by some officials of the state government.
The meeting, convened by Katsina Security Community Initiative, was violently disrupted shortly after it commenced on Tuesday in Katsina.
It was convened to rub minds and proffer solutions to the dire security challenges in the state.
The armed thugs who inbedded themselves in the hall while others waited outside, branded the organisers as anti government and therafter began to throw chairs around and attacked the participants including journalists covering the event.
The organisers led by Dr Bashir Kurfi, later told journalists at a new venue that they would not be deterred by the unwarranted attack.
They said that the state government was fully aware of the meeting and two meetings held in Abuja and Kaduna.
“The whole idea of the meeting was to link up with communities on how best we can address this problem of bloodshed in our state. We are not here to castigate the government or whoever, but the fact of the matter is that we as elite in the state, we have a responsibility to talk on something which we feel will affect the lives of our people, and that is exactly what we are after.
“We had the first meeting in Abuja and we informed the governor, where we asked him to send his representatives, and about ten local government chairmen, led by the state ALGON Chairman, were there on behalf of the government.
“We had our second meeting in Kaduna, these same local government chairmen were there and two of them were co-opted as members of the secretariat for whatever report that we will give at the end.
“Unfortunately, these same chairmen were here with us in Katsina and when this incident happened, one of them was seen meeting with those thugs in the mosque within the premises, after which he gave them some money to share,” he said.
When contacted, the State Commissioner of Information and Culture, Dr Bala Salisu Zango, claimed ignorance of the meeting and what transpired.
