……Says current Bandits activities a big threat to food security
From John Adams, Minna
The Senator representing Niger East Senatorial District, Alhaji Mohammed Sani Musa has condemned the latest escalation of Bandits activities in parts of Niger state, especially his senatorial zone, describing the situation as alarming and worrisome.
The Senator who was reacting to the sacking of entire Tsohon Kabula community and the abduction of well over 23 villagers, mostly women in Munya local local government area of the state by the gunmen in a statement on Friday expressed sadness over the recent development.
“The latest attack and act of terrorism targeted at the people of my constituency, Niger East Senatorial Zone by these criminal elements is inhuman, wicked and unacceptable. The people have been forced out of the farm lands and their ancestral homes, and have been turned to refuges in their own land, this is unfortunate.
“I seriously feel the pains of my people, it is very sad to see people being forced out of their homes without committing any crime. My people are helpless and the authority must act immediately to restore normalcy in the community”.
This is even as no fewer than eight women were abducted from Zagzaga community, few kilometers from Tsohon Kabula on Thursday night when the gunmen in their numbers invaded the community at about 7:00pm according to a village source.
A middle age man was shot on the leg by the gunmen when he tries to escape like other men in the community who fled into the bush on sighting the Bandits, leaving the women and their children behind. The gunmen however went with eight of the women.
According to a source close to the community, the gunmen came to the community on foots unlike in previous attacks where they will invade the people on motorcycles with which they usually used to convey looted food items from the community.
“This time around they came with legs and they were many in numbers but we don’t know the exact number because it was already dark. They came around 7:00pm and the men all ran into the bush for safety but they carried about eight women and went away with them”.
This latest attack is coming barley two week after an entire community was sacked by the Bandits and their houses, including a worship center occupied by the gunmen, using them as temporary camp where they keep kidnap victims before moving them to their base in Kaduna state.
But Sani Musa who is the Senator representing the zone while condemning the activities of the gunmen, pointed out that almost five out of the nine local government areas in his senatorial zone are under siege from Bandits, stressing that the economic lives of the people which is farming have been destroyed, and therefore fueling food crisis and hunger in the area.
According to him, his constituency account for about 60 percent of food production in the state but regretted that 80 percent these farmers have been forced to leave their farms and homes due to the activities of these gunmen for over eight years now with no end in sight.
While calling on the Federal government, the Armed Forces and other relevant security Agencies to stand together and rise up to the occasion, with a view to bring this ugly situation under control, he warned that the current escalation of the activities of the Bandits in Niger state and other parts of the country if not urgently addressed, it is capable of frustrating the food security programme of the present administration.
“If the people are not allowed to go to their farms because of insecurity, how do we achieve the food security agenda of the present administration? I strongly believed that the time to act is now, and that is why I am appealing that this situation must be tackled with all seriousness it deserved for the good of Nigeria and Nigerians”, he submitted.
Already foodstuff has skyrocketed in the state with a 25kg bag of maize now selling for N40,000, while a 40-measured size of rice bag now go for between N80,000 and N90,000, depending on the quality, while five tubers of yam is being sold for between N4,000 to N5,000 depending on size.