Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal has blamed the recent attacks and killings in his state on the failure of leadership.

In a statement personally signed by him and issued on Thursday, the governor recalled that only last week, seven policemen were gunned down in Abuja with their arms taken away by the assailants.

He noted that the incident occurred just three weeks after three policemen were shot dead in Sokoto State by kidnappers while trying to abduct a Syrian national while another four policemen were ambushed and killed in Benue State.

The governor maintained that the killing of security personnel by criminal elements had given credence to the argument that the nation’s security architecture needs an urgent overhaul.

Describing the situation where policemen, who had been given the constitutional duty of protecting citizens were themselves being killed by criminals as worrisome, Tambuwal stressed that the foregoing could be as a result of failure in leadership.

“The question from every law-abiding citizen today is: Who will protect us, when even those are constitutionally charged with the responsibility of protecting our lives and property have, themselves, become vulnerable targets of criminals?

“Where shall we run to for protection when the institutions of state put in place to protect us are being progressively dismantled by opportunistic criminals and the trained personnel are also on the run?

“Nigeria’s security architecture and the strategies currently adopted and deployed for national security, if any, need a comprehensive overhaul. It is not working. The needless waste of lives everywhere, both those of trained security personnel and ordinary citizens is a drain on the nation’s resources and an unacceptable diminution of our valuable human capital.

“The worst part of all these is that these deaths are avoidable and the killings preventable. It boils down, at the end of the day, to the failure of leadership,” Tambuwal lamented.

Armed bandits had on Tuesday attacked villages around Gandi in Rabah Local Government Area of the state, killing an unspecified number of people while some of the attacked villages were burned to the ground and their residents displaced.

Cordelia Nwewe, the Police Public Relations Officer of the Sokoto Police Command said that the state Commissioner of Police, Muritala Mani and  medical personnel from the state had moved to the affected local government area to assess the situation and ascertain how many people were affected.