Northern Governors calls for state of emergency on cattle rustling

Worried by the increase state of cattle rustling across the country, Governors from the Northern part of the country at the ongoing 21st Nigerian Economic Summit (NESG) holding in Abuja, have called on Federal government to take urgent steps to curb it.
Governor Nasir El-rufai of Kaduna state, who took the first shot at the meeting, noted that security challenge remains one of tasks faced by the region.
According to him, collective effort is needed to aid Federal government in finding a lasting solution to the menace.
El-rufai who spoke on behalf of governors of the North West region, said ‘‘ the attempts to get help from the Federal Government failed, following complaints of shortage of funds by the Federal Government to handle the situation.
‘‘Through the synergy by governors of the region, the North west governors have been able to fund a task force who have been able to degrade the activities of the bandit rustlers and recovered over 12,000 stolen cattle.’’
As part of efforts to curb the vice, the Governors said they recently formed a regional security synergy to check the excesses of the cattle rustlers and other bandits parading around the region.
In the education sector, the Governors lamented the poor state of education in the region.
Quoting a recent audit report published on teachers, they said over 60 percent of teachers were not qualified to teach.
To address the issue, they noted that a total of 3,000 graduate English and Mathematics teachers had been recruited to fill the gap.