Member representing Birnin Gwari and Giwa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Hon. Bashir Zubairu Birnin Gwari, said over N100 million was lost by farmers following an attack on a maize farm by bandits in Kaduna State.
The lawmaker disclosed this while speaking with BBC Hausa Radio monitored on Wednesday in Kaduna about the Sunday bandit attack on maize farms at Kwaga and Unguwar Zoko in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area.
He said if the government failed to address such atrocities, the people would have no choice but to defend themselves.
“It was a huge loss of over N100 million, and they (the bandits) have not stopped, because it’s something they’ve been doing for the past two to three months. They claim that their people were attacked, their properties destroyed, and their seized weapons must be returned to them,” he said.
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Daily Trust gathered that the Sunday maize farm attack took place less than 48 hours after religious and community leaders had met with bandit leaders in the area to discuss a peace deal.
Regarding the ongoing peace deal, the lawmaker, Bashir, said that the affected villagers who lost their properties and family members as a result of the bandit attacks should be compensated for their losses.
“It’s not possible to sit with people (the bandits) in a peace deal and later give them a huge amount of money, apart from the wealth they seized from innocent villagers, the people they killed, and the properties they destroyed. Just imagine the worst losses inflicted on innocent people, and yet you still want a peace deal,” he said.
“On this peace deal, I want to call on the leaders from the federal government to know that part of the peace deal should include compensating the innocent people whose farm products were destroyed,” he added.
The lawmaker further lamented that during a previous move for peace, some bandit leaders were invited to the Emir of Birnin Gwari’s palace, and a large sum of money was given to them as part of the peace agreement. Meanwhile, the poor people whose families were abducted and whose livelihoods were destroyed received nothing.
He stated that while arming civilians is not the best option, if the situation continues, residents must arm themselves and lamented that, to this day, their people are being arrested for buying arms to defend themselves. He cited the example of some residents of Kutemeshi who were arrested and locked up at the police station just last month.
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