Banditry: Niger govt to go after informants

Niger State Government has promised to ensure arrest and prosecution of those providing information to bandits terrorising some parts of the state.

The Secretary to the State Government, Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, stated this at a 1-day symposium on banditry and insecurity, organised by the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State. 

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“The activities of informants who share intelligence with the bandits on the movement of their targets have aggravated the present state of insecurity particularly in some parts of the state.

“Therefore, the joint security operations must be mobilised and sustained to dislodge banditry, their informants and other criminals in the state,” he said.

The SSG lamented that farmers-herders clashes had degenerated to insecurity, stating the need for government to tackle porous borders, interstate boundary disputes, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment and proliferation of small arms and light weapons, among others.

Matane stressed the need for coordinated and sustained joint security operations, strict surveillance on the proliferation of weapons, full deployment of ICT-Drones, trackers, communication systems and the establishment of community policing to stem banditry.  

The Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Prof. Abubakar Baba Aliyu, who chaired the event, said the persistent influx of bandits and criminals from neighbouring states led to the steady rise of banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustlings and other criminality in the state. 

The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Abu-Kasim Adamu, said the symposium was organised to provide pathways to end the rising insecurity in the state.