The deputy governor of Niger State, Yakubu Garba has attended the three-day Fidda’u prayer session organised for victims of recent bandits attack in Anguwan Maigero community in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.
He was accompanied by the Emir of Minna, Alhaji Umar Farouk Bahago, where the prayer session was held in Kuta Central Mosque, Headquarters of Shiroro Local Government Council for the repose of the souls of the victims of the attack.
Garba in an interview with newsmen shortly after the prayer session, appealed to the Nigerian Army to as a matter of urgency redeploy its personnel who were earlier withdrawn from Allawa and other communities prone to bandits attacks in the state.
It would be recalled that no fewer than 13 persons lost their lives on Wednesday when they were caught unaware by bandits while on transit to their farms in Anguwan Maigero village in Shiroro Local Government Area.
He noted that Garba the withdrawal of military personnel from Allawa and other communities has brought a setback to the state government’s efforts in tackling insecurity across the state.
“I want to appeal to our military to see reasons to go back to Allawa and other prone area to give full security cover to our people who are predominantly farmers,” he said.
Garba, said the Mohammed Umaru Bago-led administration has deployed strategies to end insecurity, adding that people with personal opinion that the present government is not making concerted efforts to address insecurity challenges bedevelling the state as a fallacy aimed to blackmail the the government.
He added that that unlike the last two years ago that people could not travel to some communities/places under Shiroro, Comrade Yakubu Garba said people can now travel freely to such areas as Kuta, Zumba, Gwada and Erena without having a second thought due to the effort being put in place by the present administration in tackling insecurity challenges in the state.
He clarified that those that were killed in the recent attack were displaced farmers that left the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camp to the farms outside the IDPs camp, but were caught unaware by the dare-devil bandits while on transit.
He stressed that those with such notions or insinuations were free to have such opinions because we are in a democratic era, hilighting that such notions reflect their personal opinions and not true pictures of things.
According to him, such statement is political and no one should play politics with issues of insecurity and issues that has to do with the lives of the people, especially the peasant farmers who were unaware that some criminal elements were lurking around the corners to launch deadly attacks on them.
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