On Monday, Gov. Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State said his government was battle ready to confront bandits, kidnappers and all other forms of criminality in the state.

Mohammed stated this when he paid a sympathy visit to ex-Governor Ahmed Muazu's family in Boto village, Tafawa Balewa Local Government Area of the state.

Some family members of the former governor were recently kidnapped while a 25-year-old man was killed in the process.

“We are going to take stringent measures, some of those measures that are outside the security rules engagement, we are going to use vigilante and community relations.

“Because this is the house of a former governor and those people who came, the hooligans and the charlatans, they came to insult us.

“It is a big affront, and we want to take it as such; we will not sleep until we get them, we will not sleep until we protect our leaders because we have been exposed to the vagaries of expectations,” he said

According to him, “this is a pure village settlement. It is not his fault that his relations are here, and certainly, we must protect everyone, and we know they have informants.

“But our security agencies are working very hard to make sure they protect us and apprehend them”.

The governor, however, urged District Heads, Village Heads and local government executives to share information to curb criminality.

“Please, don’t sleep because nobody will do that for you; you have to protect yourselves; you have to stand up and protect yourselves; they cannot overcome us, but we have to overcome them.”

“We know their routes; they are coming from Plateau state through Kurgwi to Kardam and Lere and so on.

“Insha Allah, since we know their routes and with technology, we are going to get them,” he said.

Mohammed said that his administration commiserated with the affected families and assured to get to the hoodlums, adding that “we are going to be very daring against them”.

Earlier, Police Commissioner Umar Sanda assured us that his Officers and men are on top of the situation and will soon make a breakthrough in apprehending the criminals.

Sanda promised to continue to do his best to effectively police the entire state and keep the residents safe and protected.