Niger state governor, Abubakar Bello
In its consistent onslaught against innocent Nigerians terrorists have killed over 200 people, including security operatives in their various attacks on communities in Niger State this January..
The state governor, Abubakar Bello, announced this on Tuesday shortly after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Villa in Abuja.
Bello stated that the criminals who have been proscribed as terrorists by the Federal Government also invaded hundreds of communities and abducted scores of residents.
“In January alone this year, we suffered not less than 50 reported attacks and loss of lives between 1st and 17th January,” the governor told State House correspondents in the nation’s capital. “Within the same period, not less than 300 communities have been invaded by terrorists.
“The number of people kidnapped is 200, including three Chinese nationals. We also lost some security personnel – their number is 25. Unfortunately, we lost about 165 civilians and 30 local vigilantes. So, it’s a very dire situation that we have been battling in the last few weeks since the beginning of this year.”
The governor lamented that residents of some communities in the state have continued to pay ransoms to terrorists in exchange for protection against attacks on their settlements.
He stressed that such payments were not enough to stop the attacks, while appealing to the people of the affected communities not to pay any money to the terrorists.
Governor Bello called for the massive recruitment of security personnel and deployment to the state in order to bring the situation under control.
He stated that informants within the communities constitute a major challenge and urged states sharing borders with Niger, including Kebbi and Kaduna to come together in the fight against the criminals.
“We still have some communities where ransoms are being collected,” he said. “We will try to discourage them (residents) from paying such ransoms because even when they pay ransoms, it doesn’t stop bandits from attacking them again.
“When you pay levies to bandits, they use such money to purchase weapons and they come back to attack you.”