Niger State Governor Says Banditry Will Affect Food Production In The North

Abubakar Bello, the Governor of Niger state has revealed that bandit activities in the North-Central region will negatively affect food production.

Bello who doubles as the North Central Governor's forum chairman said that his main concern is about food security.

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Further raising questions as to why the bandits were attacking farms, Bello asked the Federal Government to look into several factors that have led to the increasing activities of bandits in the region.

“My main concern about this issue is about food security. When they kidnap for ransom, yes you will say they do that for money.

“But why burn farms? Why kill animals? I really want the Federal Government to really look at it from the several factors that contribute to this."

The Governor further revealed that his administration was working to track bandits who engage in the activities of killing people, attacking communities and destroying farmlands 

“To get the right intelligence from the various communities that are far away from the cities, you must have some form of technology.

“In the meantime is that we try to track the movements of these bandits. For those ones that move on 20, 30, 40, 50 motorcycles, it is easy to pick using an ISR.

“For those ones that move in smaller units, I have to deploy, for example, things like drones and all that. We have to have intelligence,” he further said.

The activities of bandits in the country have over time become worrisome.

It will be recalled that bandits during an attack on a community in Katsina state abducted over 300 students.

However, the students were released last week Thursday.