Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, on Monday said there was a correlation between insurgency in the north-eastern part of the country and banditry as well as kidnapping in the North-West and South-West respectively.
Fayemi, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, disclosed these in an interview with State House correspondents after a meeting with President Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The governor said, “There is a direct correlation between insurgency in the North-East and what we are seeing manifesting itself as banditry in the North-West or kidnapping in the South-West. Some of the people involved in these are also the ones responsible for insurgency. They are using the resources they make from kidnapping for the activities they are conducting in the Northeast. So, we need to take a comprehensive look at all these things and not treat them in compartments. We must treat them as a comprehensive issue and then tackle them collectively. I don’t think we are naive enough to think that it is simply a military action that will resolve all these security challenges. They have root causes and the root causes require political will, political action on our part against poverty, inequality and disconnections between our youths and the government.”