No fewer than 50 armed herdsmen have been arrested by the operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the past one week.
This was revealed by Ahmed Audi, the Commandant-General of NSCDC, while presenting licenses to 17 private security guard operators in Abuja, on Wednesday.
Audi said the suspects were arrested in Ekiti, Borno, Cross River and other states, adding that they were allegedly involved in banditry, kidnappings and cattle theft.
He noted the need for cooperation among security agencies, saying the security challenges in the country can only be addressed substantially through sharing of intelligence.
“The nation is being bedeviled with a very serious security crisis, and that is the asymmetric warfare. If you want to deal decisively with this, you must synergize with all stakeholders, in terms of credible intelligence.
“We arrested 50 illegally armed herdsmen, and we realized that some of them are into rustling of cattle, and also kidnapping. The armed herdsmen were arrested throughout the federation – some in Ekiti, Borno, Cross River states.
“You know it is part of our mandate to settle disputes between herdsmen and farmers and to also give some security protection to our agro-allied investments in the country,’’ he said.
The CG however advised the private security guard operators not to adopt ranks or accoutrement used by the military and other security agencies.
