Bandits

The Katsina State Government said on Monday that it had spent about N30 million on amnesty programme for repentant bandits and cattle rustlers in the state before the programme collapsed.

Chairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Matazu Local Government Area of Katsina State, Alhaji Yusau Dissi, was reportedly abducted alongside nine others by gunmen in different attacks across the state.

Governor Bello Matawalle has said negotiation with bandits is the best option for lasting peace in the state just as he said he has no regrets in his administration choosing that option.

The Defence Headquarters, DHQ, on Saturday denied allegation of leaders of Tiv people in Taraba State under the aegis of Tiv Cultural and Social Association (TCSA) accusing Nigerian military personnel deployed in Taraba State of raping their wives and daughters and also destroying their properties in the name of manhunt for bandits in Southern Taraba.

After successful airstrikes on locations on bandits in Niger State, men of the Nigerian Police during clearing operation have arrested two foreign collaborators allegedly training and assisting bandits terrorizing several communities in some Local Government Areas in the State.

The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, on Sunday said that the lingering banditry and other heinous crimes orchestrated by bandits in the North-west will soon be over.

The Defence Headquarters says the air component of Operation Hadarin Daji has destroyed two bandits’ camps and a cave hideout led by Hassan Tagwaye in Doumborou Forest, Zamfara.

Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State said yesterday that the state is now deploying the carrot and stick approach in dealing with the insecurity problem in the state, especially banditry which has claimed the lives of hundreds of people.

The Zamfara State government has described its peace and reconciliation initiative as the best way to address armed banditry in the state.

President Muhammadu Buhari has appealed to Nigerians to be patient with his government as everything is being put in place to tackle headlong the insecurity in the polity.

The Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram, Jama’atu Ahlussunnah Lidda’awati Wal Jihad, has invited bandits to join them.

Katsina has called on villagers and rural dwellers to expose fleeing bandits and their informants to quickly end the spate of banditry attacks in some parts of the state.

The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, has criticised President Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesman, Femi Adesina, over his comment against the Northern Elders’ Forum.

Barely 48 hours after president Muhammadu Buhari reiterated his administration’s victory over incessant killing in the country and the need to regularize the activities of the herdemen in the country, a 65-year-old man, Mazi Ozoemena Iriaka, has been killed by suspected herdsmen yesterday, in Umuekpu-Agwa, Oguta Local Government Area (LGA), Imo State.

The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has accused the All Progressives Congress, APC, of being responsible for insecurity in Nigeria.

The Second Republic lawmaker, Dr. Junaid Muhammed, has backed the Northern Elders Forum claims that President Muhammadu Buhari and the Northern Governors have lost control of security, saying whosoever it is saddled with the responsibility to secure the country is not in charge.

The District Head of Yantumaki in Danmusa Local Government Area of Katsina State, Alhaji Abu Atiku, was late Sunday night killed by bandits in a fresh attack on the community.

The Deputy Chairman Senate Committee on Defence and Senator representing Plateau North, Istifanus Gyang, and the Plateau State chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) have expressed their grief over the gruesome killing of five persons in Miango community by bandits in Bassa Local Government Area the state.