Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, former commissioner of Police in Lagos State, , has accused Nigerian politicians of stimulating the activities of bandits that are terrorising citizens in the country.
Tsav who made the assertion yesterday in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, says that politicians caused banditry and most security challenges the nation face.
Noted that the affected politicians knew exactly who the bandits were and why they were carrying out their attacks.
“Banditry and insecurity are created by politicians and the politicians know who the bandits are. They know why these people are doing this. I want to appeal to our political class to have a change of heart and cooperate with security agencies to reduce criminality in the land.
“If the police are courageous enough to search houses and monitor the activities of politicians, you will see what they will recover from them,” he said.
Tsav added that the increased level of corruption and porous borders had also contributed to the security problem as most arms were smuggled into the country through the borders.
The ex-police commissioner, therefore, advised the federal government to embark on massive employment of security personnel to take away most of the unemployed youths from the streets and reduce criminality in the country.
Tsav said:, ‘security agencies, especially the police, lack the manpower to handle the incessant security breaches in the country as most of the ones in the service were attached to politicians.
“In the police service, for instance, we have a few policemen and most of them are attached to politicians. In fact, the government should reduce the salaries of the legislature to fund the new intakes.
“It is dangerous to attach a police officer to a politician for more than two years because the moment they stay long with them they become very loyal to the politicians instead of the Nigeria Police Force,” he added.