Reps Want Forests Combed To Smoke Out Bandits

The House of Representatives has called on security agencies to liaise with local vigilantes and the like to embark on a holistic forest comb in all parts of Nigeria to forestall the hibernation and the continued presence of bandits and herdsmen in their hideouts.

This followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by Hon. Billy Osawaru (APC, Edo) at plenary on Wednesday.

Moving the motion, Osawaru said Nigeria had, over time, been faced with the scourge of insecurity, including terrorism, banditry and militia activities leading to unfortunate killings, kidnapping, abductions, armed robbery, cattle rustling, unknown gunmen, vandalism of critical national infrastructure, amongst others.

He said the ugly trend of insecurity is detrimental to the nation’s growth, development, and future as panic and tension continually mount regarding citizens’ safety. Investors’ confidence is reduced, and farm lands are abandoned, resulting in a decrease in food production, scarcity, hunger, and inflation, as well as displacement of a large population.

The lawmaker expressed concern that the continued presence of banditry, kidnapping, and other forms of insecurity in Nigeria underscores an apparent deficiency in the country’s security architecture, thereby necessitating a critical need to reassess, re-evaluate and reinvent the nation’s response and tactics for combating these unconscionable security breaches.

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“Worried that if wilful and productive actions are not deployed to ascertain, review, develop and strengthen comprehensive strategies to curbing this unprecedented wave of security crises, then its scope will continue to widen, perhaps to areas where there has been relatively peaceful, wreaking havoc and hampering economic activities thereby inflicting untold hardship and hunger on the citizens and this does not portend well for the future of the nation,” he argued.