Niger governor laments influx of bandits from Zamfara, Kaduna

Niger State Governor, Abubakar Bello, on Wednesday lamented that the state has been experiencing an influx of bandits from neighbouring states with an emphasis on Zamfara and Kaduna states.

Mr Bello spoke with journalists after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari over the worsening security situation in his state.

He told State House correspondents that the President assured that the issue would be addressed.

“So, we had a very fruitful discussion and the President has also pledged more support to the state on security matters so that within the shortest time, we will address the security situation,” Mr Bello said.

Speaking on the security situation in the state, which he described as ‘very bad’, Mr Bello said: “most of the bandits have started focusing their attention on the Bobi Grazing Reserve which I have also discussed with Mr President.”

“We have investors that have started investing in terms of money, equipment, processing facilities and we do not want to discourage them so we applied most of our resources and efforts towards protecting the grazing reserve. But we are having influx of bandits from neighbouring states, especially Zamfara and Kaduna states.”

He said it is difficult to patrol those areas because vehicles do not go there and they are deep in the forest, stating the need of the federal might especially the Air Force.

Mr Bello struck out the tendencies of negotiating with the bandits, noting that previous attempts did not yield a positive result.

He said the bandits were not honest in their talks.

“They started with armed robbery, then they moved to cattle rustling and then to kidnapping as a means of getting money.

“But recently, the trend has changed. They started burning farms and animals. So, this has given me some concerns and at the same time it has kept me thinking, what is the motive? If you stop people from going to farms, it means you are trying to deprive that nation of food security. Why will someone want to deprive people of food security?