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Operation Yaki
has lowered crime rate — Mamman
COLONEL GABRIEL DANGANA MAMMAN is
the special adviser on security to Governor Mohammed Namadi Sambo of
Kaduna state. He is the co-ordinator of operation Yaki, the security
outfit established three months ago by the state government to go
after criminals and criminally-intended persons. Mamman spoke to
Rachael Oligo & longtong Ibrahim on the modus operandi of the OY and
how much it has achieved so far. Excerpts:
NNS: Operation Yaki’s basic
assignment is to check the rate of crime in Kaduna state. Is the
security outfit making any headway?
We’re discharging our duty to the very best of our ability. With the
resources given by the government, I assure you we have done.
Extremely well going by what the crime rate used to be in Kaduna.
There is some improvement in terms of prevention.
We understand that it is a joint operation between all the security
agencies in the state, under whose command is operation Yaki?
Operation yaki is being co-coordinated, not commanded, by the
security adviser to the state governor who is my self I am the
coordinator of operation yaki on the government side. All the
security agencies involved have their commanders. They are being
commanded by commanders at all levels.
Does that mean instructions come different command?
In the operation of this nature you will give a mission statement to
the operatives and the mission is to curb crime, that is the mission
or main objective. Now the men being commanded by their own officers
will get the mission and come up with their own execution. That is
how they go about fighting crime.
We are aware that the state government has purchase vehicles for the
operation yaki who pays the officers?
They are paid very well and reasonably. They are well catered for by
the government, the vehicles are fueled and the officers get a lot
of motivation, assistance and shown concern to see that they operate
very well. We have a lot of welfare packages for them, like
insurance cover, vehicles and personnel are insured by IGI
industries gas insurance based in Kaduna here. The event of any
accident or death in active office, they are given insurance cover.
Also we have welfare packages like free medical care for them.
You talk of motivation, here what do you really mean?
Apart from paying them their normal cash allowance, we feed them
three times daily. It’s reasonable. The welfare package is just
additional insurance cover, medical cover. All our vehicles carry
first aid kits.
Can you tell us the success story in terms of crime prevention
within and outside the Kaduna metropolis?
Crime has reduced within the metropolis and on our high ways. We are
extending our operation to the local government areas. This
operation is expected to cover all the 23 local government areas of
Kaduna. All the vehicles we have are deployed within the metropolis
and on the major high ways. We are expecting batch two of the
vehicles and by the time they come we shall move them to all the
local governments.
Does that mean presently operation yaki has no presence in local
government areas?
Right now we’re present only in some local government areas that are
in Kaduna. Chikun local government is catered for up to Kagarko;
There is covered. We are on the ground in Zaria Makarfi, sometimes
you see us around Kudan Giwa Area, and we cover high ways for now.
Why I’m saying some places are not covered is because we are
expecting more vehicles and these vehicles will be disposed to all
other local governments that aren’t catered for now.
Lately there have been complaints about the high handedness of the
operation Yaki in Kaduna and other local government areas, have you
been receiving such reports? If yes, what have you done to check its
excesses?
Actually we have been receiving reports but we are humans. In any
organization or set up you must have bad eggs, some operate very
well while others don’t but I’m assuring you, their commanders get
this report and they monitor their men to make sure lapses are taken
care of. All of them are uniformed people and are bound by two laws,
the military law and the civil laws. So if you commit any offence,
you won’t go unpunished, we have taken measures where we curtail
excesses. Once we get that kind of report, we as much as possible
Investigate. But mind you, we human beings have short comings, once
somebody is going against what you want you won’t be happy. We’ve
many criminals, some of these criminals are agaisnt us becaus they
can be part of those who report us because they are not happy with
our operation. Any meaningful or reasonable human being will even
encourage and assist us. Security is not for one person, if you see
my men doing bad, I’m telling you that, it is not just out of place
because we are human beings but 99.9% of these reports you get are
not all that true, I’m assuring you.
Do you have monitoring team to check the activities of your men?
We have, there is something we call checkmate if you sent out troops
for operation, you must have within your circle a checkmate team
that will go around and be seeing the activities of this men in the
field. We from the operation yaki head quarters go out, I personally
go out on patrol to monitor what this operatives are doing and where
I see lapses, I check it instantly. I don’t allow it to go and come,
anything I have to correct I correct, and if it is something I have
to report to their commanders, I do it. We have so many other checks
like that, all the officers don’t sit down, within them there are
officers that go and check this men. This is how we checkmate them.
There have been conflicting reports about the cause of the accident
involving an operation yaki and a bus on Kaduna River Bridge
recently. What caused the accident and how many people lost their
lives in the accident?
I was not at the scene, but when I went to the scene, I was told
that the driver was really reckless. As I said, we are human beings.
Nobody can say what was his state of mind, why was he driving with
that speed. He collided with the bus and unfortunately that
accidents occur, it could be deliberate or not deliberate. We are
human beings only God can tell that, you can see what is happening
on the road, but what is the state of mind of that person on the
road, it’s what nobody can say. But right now out of the six people
that are involved in the accident in that bus, five are death, the
driver is seriously down, one other person is seriously down, but we
have recorded five dead and the vehicle damaged.
We heard that you have a communication problem. Reaching your people
in local government areas has not been easy. What are you doing to
improve your communication system?
No, we don’t have any communication problem. Our communication is
not for everybody. It is within us and is internal to the
operatives. It is not GSM that one can say network problem. If we
have network problem. It’s terrain, most of this gadget are wireless
so terrain can affect their operation. We have base station in the
Operation Yaki headquarters, we have refuters here, Zaria and
Kafanchan. This refuters boost or beam the communication to the
other vehicles in the high ways and with the metropolis. All the
local governments have put in (Hm) that’s high frequency radio. We
are not complaining of communication problem, within ourself we talk
and the important thing is to talk to ourselves not to the public.
Whoever is complaining then it’s not part of operation yaki, it’s
only operation yaki that can complain of faulty in communication but
not any person from outside because they are restricted
communication gadget, they are mainly use by the operators. The only
problem is the terrain which can affect the sound, weather can also
affect it. Some of the gadget have distance they cover like the
walking talking has a limit and distance problem but we have
particular radio that can extend longer distance, example from kudan
local government, you can talk to makarfi local government. So the
essence of it is to be able to communicate with the other vehicle,
we don’t have that problem , all vehicles you see , the surveillance
cars(do intelligent gathering) that assist good samaritan on the
high way and within the ambulances the metropolis, the Hilux all
have communication gadget in them, they have the vehicle gadget and
they have the walking talking is for one for one, which have
distance problem which you can now switch on the same channel as we
have our own frequency and channel.
We were told that there is a helicopter to be used by operation yaki:
but people have not been seeing it in operation what happened and
when are you putting it to use?
Helicopters aren’t like a machine or any vehicle you see on the
road, they are on the air and don’t hang there for you to see them.
But they operate every week, they come from Abuja that is the police
helicopter, but very soon we are going to have a station belt 206,
that’s the state own helicopter. We have those we have given them
accommodation and those we have given them vehicles to come here and
stay, operate on daily bases. Whichever break you see may be they’ve
gone back to the headquarters. For one or two administrative
problems if they are not here they are back to base in Abuja. When
our own comes here you will see them on daily bases, infact if you
are lucky we can carry some of you to fly and see what we are doing
on the air.
Does that mean it’s only once in a week the helicopter does move
around?
No, the helicopter is here on weekly bases and fly three times a
week in some part of Kaduna. It is not everywhere they fly to, there
are map areas we call it black spot. We have information gathering
on ground, we feed them on the areas we want them to fly, but at the
same time the governor has graciously ask them to assist NNPC
patrolling their pipelines about the pipelines vandalisation. They
assist the NNPC in inspecting the pipelines. But all they concerns
themselves is black spot; we give them the black spot. Apart from
what they gather, we have gadget up there, they can see more than we
see some times down, but what we see down we tell them and they
monitor all these places. We already have Dana terma Dana hanger,
and the custom Yawe unit, so we’ve taken permission, the government
have taken permission from them so that the pilot will be packed
there. The helicopter will be packed there, the pilot are with us on
daily bases. They go on the flight schedules in Abuja, they come
work and go back.
Does that mean if they come back to Kaduna they will be working on a
daily bases?
Yes on a daily bases but mind you they have hours to cover, any
flight has some hours to cover, if they fly maybe in a day they have
(8) eight hours as the case may be or maybe we want them to be
flying for about 60 hours in a week, if we divide it, you will see
how many hours they can fly within a week.
Considering the complaints by people on the attitude of operation
yaki team, what message do you have for Kaduna people?
The only message I have or I will tell kaduna people is that we’ve
just started and we need to have a lot of patience, this operatives
are human being like anybody, we need the public to assist us.
Security is for everybody, most of this hoodlums and hide out are
well known to all of us, if we don’t bring out these areas to
operation yaki by pinpointing this areas and hoodlums, there is no
way we can be effective. But so far we are very happy some have been
assisting us, we have agencies that come to give us information, we
also have intelligent unit that go to find out areas if I tell you
list of areas that we’ve mapped out and almost everyday we have
joint operation we go to arrest. There, Indian hemp smokers, rapist,
we arrest a lot of them. All these social cases can’t be note by
operation yaki if we are not told, we will only be patrolling, but
if we know an area that is volatile in terms of crime we go there
direct and dislouge that place. So I’m appealing to kaduna state
people to assist operation yaki so that the team can work very well,
all this sentiments that the team is bad or doing whatever, we are
all human beings we start to be corrected, we need people to assist
us, those who know we can work effectively.
Are people going to see a refined and committed operation yaki team?
Very well, we improve every other day, attitude improved, operation
yaki will improved, the government is not stepping on any discipline
and coming out, the governor in particular is ready to spend fortune
for us to have peace in the state. That he is doing, so operation
yaki definitely will reciprocate if we don’t reciprocate then God
will not be happy with us, so what else do we need than to work very
well and assist the masses any unfortunate scene you see from
operation yaki is unfortunate, it’s not deliberate, we all are
human, but anytime we are corrected definitely we will take
corrections.
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