The rising kidnapping activities would have cumulative effect on economy and trigger another round of insecurity that may threatens Nigeria’s unity, a farmer has warned.
He said the rising kidnapping activities were bound to trigger food insecurity and other unrests in the magnitude the country has never witnessed.
Suleiman Farinwata, a public affairs analyst and farmer pointed out that it was not a coincidence that the current round of kidnapping and banditry activities are taking place in areas hitherto known as agricultural hubs.
According to him, the Birinin Gwari-Munya-Shiroro axis in Kaduna and Niger states top high in agriculture production chart just like Birinin Gwari-Kagara-Pandogari-Tegina axis of both states.
He said Shiroro, Munya, Rafi local government areas of Niger state where kidnapping activities are rife could said to be the food basket of the state, adding that the areas can conveniently feed two geopolitical zones of the country.
He however lamented that the hitherto farming communities stretching through Munya, Shiroro and Rafi have become ghost settlements due to kidnapping.
Daily Trust recalls that communities in the three local government areas have been under constant bandits’ attacks which had triggered security deployment by the authorities.
Kidnappers often target “well-to-do” farmers with the raids more rampart at the peak of harvests season.
The development had triggered mass exodus of farmers from the areas designated as very notorious, some of whom vowed not to return even after security deployment to the affected locations.
Late December, gunmen raided 15 communities in Shiroro local government area in what the Senator representing Niger East, David Umaru described as a coordinated offensive, abducting 30 people in their wake.
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