Communities Seek Help To Fight Rising Banditry In Niger

In the last three years banditry has become frequent in farming communities around Allawa and Bassa communities in Shiroro local government area of Niger State. These villages have been deserted and the villagers turned to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). Things grew worse with closure of the Military camp in Allawa.

Last week, 13 People were confirmed killed by bandits when they struck at Anguwan Mai-Giro community in Shiroro local government area. Some of the victims drowned while escaping from the attack.
Sources hinted that those targeted were from Allawa community displaced to Mai-Giro. It was gathered that some of the villagers in the process of escaping jumped into River Kaduna and drowned.

In view of this recent development, the State Acting governor, Comrade Yakubu Garba visited the area to commiserate with the families of the victims, condemning the attack by bandits on communities.
Some of the members of the communities interviewed attributed the ease with which they were attacked by the bandits to the closure of the military camp in Allawa.

A member of the community, Yusuf Mohammed said since the closure of the camp the bandits have found it easy to attack the villages. He said the only way to mitigate the situation is to have military camps in the area to scare away the bandits.

Similarly, another villager who prefers anonymity said apart from the military camp, the informants among them must be fished out and made to pay the price of betrayal.

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“You can see that any community that the bandits do not have collaborators they hardly succeed. We must check ourselves also, we cannot expect the government to do something when our enemies are part of us,” the villager added.

In Solidarity Gwada Youth Forum (GYF) of Shiroro local government area has also expressed deep concern and worry over the alarming rate of incessant attacks by bandits in that axis of the local government area.

The president of Gwada Youth Forum, Malam Mu’azu Isah Gwada, expressed concern in a statement issued at the weekend.

Resonating the concern of the people the acting governor who is also from Shiroro, appealed for a military camp in the area when he visited.

All those who spoke are unanimous, mentioning that the state government is not in control of the command system of the security agencies, and could do little to energise them other than providing logistics.

The people therefore called for more attention on not only Shiroro but also neighbouring Rafi and Munya local government areas to end banditry by ensuring more military presence.