Responding to a question during his interview with Trust TV on where the problem lies, the governor said the work of these fifth columnists within the security agencies makes it difficult for prompt response by the security agencies.

He said, in many instances, several lives of security personnel have been lost after being ambushed due to information leaked by the fifth columnists.

He said, “…Let me also say this; fifth columnists have infiltrated the security agencies. This is a fact we must confront as a nation.

There are many people who should not be there; they are agents of these criminals, and sometimes they even compromise their colleagues. And that is why you have a lot of ambushes sometimes when these security agencies are going on operations.”

The governor added that President Bola Tinubu must give a very firm directive to the security agencies that in the ongoing recruitment processes, diligence must be taken.

“Diligence must be observed to ensure that wrong elements are not recruited into the armed forces and the security agencies. But there must also be a mechanism to be able to fish out these bad eggs within the security services.

“It is only when we do that, that there will be professionalism and discipline, and also some bit of empathy to the victims of these attacks,” he said. He said while the government continues to conscientise and mobilise the communities to be able to defend themselves, the overzealousness of some security officers on the ground makes the process difficult and renders the government’s efforts to be counter-productive.

Governor Mutfwang said communities in Plateau were being advised to be vigilant.

“I will continue to ensure that the communities are sufficiently conscientious to look out for one another. And so, that also gives the security agencies the opportunity to come in as their response time will be greatly reduced.

“There are areas where we can improve, certainly, but beyond that, we are also trying to ensure that the communities themselves are sufficiently conscientised and mobilised to be able to defend themselves, because the security forces can only come in and go, the people still remain in their localities, and they form borders at the last line of defence.

“We must be able to balance. We cannot just leave people to possess guns without control and accountability. And so, my own is that even if we are armed in communities, there must be a registration process.

“You should be able to boost the morale of those who stand up to defend their communities and not arrest them. We have had a few excesses, which we have reported to the authorities.

“We have witnessed a lot of overzealousness by some of the security agencies’ operatives on the ground, who instead of cooperating with locals, when they find them sometimes with ordinary machetes, they confiscate them and we have engaged their commanders to say no, this is not right,” he said.

The governor also said he is an advocate of state police and balanced gun control.

“I am a firm believer in state police. Sincerely, I have heard so many arguments about it: the tendency of governors to misuse their powers, and so on and so forth.

We cannot continue to live in fear and refuse to face realities. Globally, security is a local issue. And unless we can bring it down to the level of the communities, we may not achieve much success,” he said.