banditry Archives - Naija Premium Gist

2023: Fayemi claims to have solution to terrorism, banditry in Nigeria

May 14, 2022 No Comments

The Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi, claimed on Friday that he has a template to end the country’s insecurity.

Insecurity has been a major challenge in Nigeria since President Muhammadu Buhari assumed office in 2015 with the Boko Haram insurgents, bandits and other criminals pillaging communities across the country.

Fayemi is one of All Progressives Congress (APC) aspirants eyeing the party’s presidential ticket at this month’s primary slated for Abuja.

The governor, according to a statement issued by the Head of Campaign Organisation, Femi Ige, stated this during his visit to Borno, Yobe and Gombe States as part of consultations ahead of the party’s presidential primary.

He said: “Security will top my agenda as a security expert. I have a Ph.D. in War Studies and I consulted for Nigeria under President Olusegun Obasanjo, I was deeply involved in the resolution of the wars in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka.

We have a template that we’ll use in bringing peace to our people so that we can farm in peace, school in peace, and live in peace. If I can do it outside, why not for the country that has given me everything?

“My focus would be on bringing peace to my fatherland and ensuring that the Ibadan man finds home in Sokoto and the Sokoto man finds home in Akure, Abakaliki, Onisha or Owerri. The Oweri man must find a home in Damaturu. This is the Nigeria I want to fight for and I’m confident it’s achievable.

“Any government who can successfully tackle this would have succeeded in bringing happiness to our country, discourage the urge to secede, and address our perennial problem of youth restiveness.

“I believe I have the education, the energy, the capacity, and the knowledge to tackle this problem.

“Nigeria is a diverse country and there is diverse competency. There are competent people across the country but in a multi-cultural, multi-dimensional, and multi-religious society, you also need zoning to build trust and confidence.”

Lifestyle

DSS invites Bishop Kukah for saying Buhari is soft on terrorism, banditry

January 9, 2022 No Comments

The Department of State Services (DSS) has invited the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of Sokoto, Matthew Kukah for questioning, days after the vocal priest criticised President Muhammadu Buhari for failing to curb nationwide insecurity, Peoples Gazette reports.

Kukah had slammed Buhari in his Christmas sermon, saying the president has failed to show competence as terrorists, bandits and other criminals embark on a coordinated and relentless rampage across the country.

“We also have lost count of hundreds of individuals and families who have been kidnapped and live below the radar of publicity. Does the President of Nigeria not owe us an explanation and answers as to when the abductions, kidnappings, brutality, senseless, and endless massacres of our citizens will end? We need urgent answers to these questions,” he had said.

The priest’s comment, which was only the latest amongst several scathing criticisms he had directed at the president in recent years, drew criticism from President Buhari’s supporters.

According to Peoples Gazette, a top source revealed that the secret police ordered Kukah to appear at its headquarters for questioning. Kukah had, however yet to honour the invitation as of Saturday afternoon.

A spokesman for The Kukah Centre did not immediately return a request seeking comments on Saturday afternoon.

DSS spokesman declined to answer questions from The Gazette about the development.

Politics

Masari narrates how cattle rustling turned into banditry, insurgency

August 16, 2021 No Comments

Governor Aminu Bello Masari of Katsina State has given an insight into how cattle rustling snowballed into the current spate of kidnapping and banditry in the North West Zone of the country.

The governor spoke in Katsina during a press conference on Saturday.

The governor attributed part of the security challenges the region was facing to lack of education as well as influx of criminals from some North African countries.

Masari, who said there were ongoing efforts to tackle insecurity in the state, lamented that the current situation had prevented farmers from accessing their farmlands.

Unfortunately, what we met as cattle rustling has turned into banditry and insurgency which are depriving people, especially those living in the border area of the forests which are very fertile, from access to their farms, drastically affecting their source of livelihood.

“They have lost their ploughing cattle which they used to plough the land.

”This has caused another challenge to our “Restoration Agenda” in Katsina but we thank God that we can continue,” he said.

Masari revealed that the seven governors from the North West Zone have been meeting to work out modalities on how to end insurgency, part of which is the ongoing training of about 500 vigilance members to be followed by another 3,000 soon.

We have a committee under the North West Zone because of our linkage in terms of the boundary.

”We are strategising on how to deal with the situation.

”And as I talk to you now, we have 500 vigilantes undergoing training and we intend to take another 3,000.

“’We have infiltration from Niger Republic, Mali which has very large ungoverned spaces and you know the problem in Libya has unleashed arms and ammunition on sub-Saharan Africa.

“And we have to accept that within these areas, Nigeria is the richest and an attraction for all forms of criminality and kidnapping.

Even ISWAP will want to at least stay in the North West to institute family here and but are fighting day and night to ensure that it doesn’t happen. We are working night and day to make sure that it doesn’t become a permanent feature.

“The major problem we are facing now is the issue of selected kidnapping; they have moved a step further by going to town to kidnap a member of the family. That is the stage we are dealing with now.”

Politics

Kidnapping, banditry not federal offences in Nigeria – FG

May 5, 2021 No Comments

The federal government says kidnapping and banditry are not federal offences in Nigeria.

Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed stated this on Tuesday, in response to the statement on insecurity by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

It is shocking that a party that ruled this nation for all of 16 years does not know that kidnapping and banditry are not federal offences”, he said.

The minister told the PDP to call out the states, including those being controlled by it, to ensure a rigorous prosecution of arrested kidnappers and bandits.

Mohammed said the opposition party did not respect its own words, as it played cheap politics while playing the ostrich.

He noted that the party made wild accusations against the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government.

The minister said; “For example, the PDP said the government has refused to engage, and that we were running a ‘government of exclusion’, and not engaging stakeholders.”

Mohammed insisted that the current administration has consistently engaged Nigerians on topical national issues, including security, the fight against corruption, terrorism, infrastructure and farmer-herder conflict.

He said the latest of such Town Hall Meetings was the one in Kaduna and further listed the recommendations.

He recalled that the participants agreed: “That the governance of human society should be based on Law rather than the whims and caprices of human beings and must be obeyed by all as all persons are equal before the law including the lawgivers.

“That there is an urgent need for political restructuring and not separation; That the Judiciary be decentralized and reformed through Constitutional Amendment to remove the unitary control of the Superior Courts.

“That governments at all levels should ensure free, qualitative and compulsory Primary Education for all children of school age.

That the Military, Police and other Security Agencies be expanded in number, retrained, provided with modern equipment and technology to cope with emerging security challenges.

“That both religious and traditional leaders encourage and promote inter-marriages for unity as contained in the 1999 Constitution as amended, Article 15, 3(c) which prescribes inter-marriage among persons from different places of origin, or of different religious, ethnic or linguistic association or ties.

“That the establishment of State Police be supported by the National and State Houses of Assembly to enable State Governments to have firm control in addressing security issues.

“That Traditional Rulers be given their age-long role of maintaining peace and security within their domain.

That Local Government Autonomy be actualized to enable them have control of their areas including the ungoverned spaces in tackling security challenges.

“That the Farmers/Herders clashes be addressed by the establishment of ranches, grazing reserves with modern amenities to check the trans-humans of the herders.