Don't Let Bandit's Wipe Us Out, Niger Lawmaker Cries Tells FG

Lawmaker representing the Bosso/Paikoro federal constituency of Niger State in the National Assembly, Hon Yusuf Kure Baraje, has urged the federal government to come to save his constituency from being wiped out by bandits.

In an interview with LEADERSHIP in Abuja, the lawmaker also said the distribution of palliatives had been influenced by the insecurity in the area.

He said, “For instance my village has been attacked more than 10 times, bandits have even come to my parlour to attack me. But as l am speaking to you, I’ve never seen any military deployment of troops to engage the bandits in their hideouts. Nobody has ever been there, if there is, l stands to be corrected. The only time the military came was on surveillance from their base in Kantiri on their way to Kaduna but no troops based in Niger State have been here to deal with the bandits.

“Again, I’ve seen no commitment in the fight against banditry. Why do l say so? The bandits use a single route, the military knows where they are, we know where they are. They will come up to Lambatta, abduct people, rustle cattle and they will go back. We have drones to monitor and engage the bandits and if we are serious, it will be a day’s job. For now there are no incidents of bandits attacking because the rivers are filled up with water so they cannot cross the rivers. So, we are on our honeymoon but as soon as the rains are over, we will start receiving bandits as our guests.

“You remember that some time ago, a priest was killed and there was a viral video of bandits shooting some people on their legs. It all happened in my area. Many were killed, some were abducted and taken away and later died. What is wrong with us that we cannot stop these killings? I heard that the Niger State government is training local hunters to engage the bandits but what is their number and what are the kind of weapons they are using?”