09042021- Insecurity: Tension mounts in Imo, Abia, Rivers

Reign of terror in Niger as bandits sack
more communities
•100 households displaced
•Paid N180 million as ransom to bandits
•Aggrieved community youths demand clearance of Allawa Games Reserves
fingered as bandits’ ‘hideout’
•Insist on return of withdrawn soldiers and policemen in Bassa, Allawa
•Task Force members swapped, not withdrawn —Niger SSG
By Wole Mosadomi, Minna
BASSA and Allawa
communities in Shiroro Local
Government Area of Niger State
have not known peace since bandits
recently unleashed mayhem and a
reign of terror there, leaving the
people under the grip of fear. Many
were attacked, houses burnt and
others taken away by the bandits
following the withdrawal of the
military joint task force that had been
providing security in that axis of the
state.
The withdrawal, Arewa Voice,
learnt, followed the killing of six
soldiers and a policeman attached
to the withdrawn task force a few
weeks back. But angered by the
mayhem unleashed on the areas,
youth groups have vowed to take up
actions against bandits and their
sponsors to end the incessant attacks.
The irate youths drawn from eight
communities in Allawa and Lakpma
in Shiroro Local Government Area
of Niger State have identified the
Allawa Games Reserve located in the
area as the abode of bandits
terrorising the various communities
in the local government area. For
this reason, the youths want the
Allawa Games Reserves cleared
immediately to expose the hoodlums
presently hiding there.
The games reserve which belongs
to the state government, was
abandoned years back and is now a
thick forest where criminals hatch
and execute their attacks and later
return to as their hideout. The youths
also urged the Federal Government
to return members of the joint task
force withdrawn from the area after
the killing of six soldiers and a
policeman in Allawa.
Three days after men of the Joint
Security Task Force left their camps
at Allawa and Bassa towns, armed
gunmen invaded the communities
and sacked the villagers from their
abode.
The aggrieved villagers under the
aegis of Lakpma Youth Assembly
while addressing journalists in
Minna, the Niger State capital,
•Lakpma Youth Assembly at the press conference
lamented that the armed
bandits had already taken
over their local
government after sacking
no fewer than 100
communities leaving the
residents homeless. The
president of the youths,
Jibrin Allawa, said the
bandits had turned the
Allawa Games Reserve to
their hideout where they
hatch and execute their
nefarious activities on the
communities.
"The Lakpma axis of
Shiroro LGA has suffered
persistent banditry which
has culminated in loss of
lives, rape of women, cattle
rustling and destruction
and capturing of over 100
communities. Without
prejudice to the above,
government appears
incapacitated or unwilling
to do the needful as recent
events suggest government
has ceded Allawa, Bassa and indeed
the entire Lakpma axis to bandits
and terrorists."
According to him, banditry, which
started in 2015 as mere cattle
rustling, has now metamorphosed
into full blown war with many lives
and property worth millions of naira
lost. Allawa said: "Between 2015
and 2017 when the banditry started
gradually, we have lost no fewer than
120 of our people to the insurgency.
Between 2017 and now, we have lost
count as we cannot reel out the exact
number of names and the exact
number of deaths recorded as they
are now running into thousands.
Similarly, we have paid nothing less
than N180 million as ransom to the
bandits within the three years and we
have now lost count on the exact
amount paid to them."
He said that from all indications,
governments at all levels seem
incapacitated as they can no longer
provide adequate security for their
people, adding that with the
development, they might be forced
to take a decision in their interest.
“We shall mobilise our displaced and
hopeless kinsmen to occupy and take
shelter in government facilities within
AMAC spars with FCTA over revenue collection
•Chairman, Candido cries out over functions usurpation
By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau area. AMAC Chairman, Mr.
Chief
Abdullahi Candido, believes the
A
council is entitled to the collection
BUJA Municipal Area
and use of tenement rates in the
Council, AMAC, is upset
municipal area with huge revenue
with the Federal Capital Territory
potential of rich and powerful
Administration, FCTA, over its
people, which forms the nucleus of
meddlesomeness into the
the FCT.
collection of tenement rates in the
But Candido is furious that this
function has been hijacked
by the FCTC despite many
court rulings ceding the
collection of tenement
rates to AMAC. Addressing
journalists in Abuja, the
Chairman of AMAC,
Abdullahi Candido,
lamented that the attempt
by the FCTA to dabble into
the collection of that
revenue could hamper the
council’s effort to provide
critically needed services
for residents, especially
those in the communities.
His words: “The revenue
base is very fertile but
conflicts have not allowed
us to harness the vast
Vanguard, FRIDAY, APRIL 9, 2021 — 21
FG reiterates plan to end
unemployment, poverty
By Marie-Therese Nanlong, Jos
MINISTER of Industry, Trade
and Investment, Otunba
Niyi Adebayo, has reiterated the
commitment of the Federal
Government to lift the country out
of poverty as he said
everything was being done to
•Displaced residents fleeing their communities after attacks by bandits in Niger State
Minna if our plight is not addressed
in earnest. Until our plights are
addressed, we will boycott all civic
responsibilities to the state. The
Lakpma axis of Shiroro LGA has
suffered persistent banditry, which
has culminated in loss of lives, rape
of women, cattle rustling and
destruction and capturing of over
100 communities. Without
prejudice to the above, government
appears incapacitated or unwilling
to do the needful as recent events
suggest that it has ceded Allawa,
Bassa and indeed the entire Lakpma
Axis to bandits and terrorists. For
opportunities. The conflicts have
made it difficult for us to realise
the great revenue potentials within
the AMAC area of jurisdiction.
“We are supposed to be a big
council but the conflicts with the
FCTA have been holding us down.
I decided not to keep quiet because
keeping quiet will not help. There
have been conflicts of roles in
tenement rates collection. We have
been in court with FCTA but each
time, judgement is given in our
favour because the Constitution is
very clear on this. We have gone
from the lower courts to Appeal
Court and yet we have always won.
"The question is: 'Why are you
interested in what does not belong
to you?' These are the issues that
continue to create tension between
AMAC and FCTA. There wouldn’t
be conflicts if you don’t try to
muzzle AMAC. AMAC was created
by law. I recognise FCTA as our
supervisory ministry and we want
a win-win structure in relating with
the FCTA but they should take what
belongs to them and leave us with
end unemployment
through Economic Recovery and
Growth Plan, ERGP, and the
Economic Sustainability Plan.
He commended the Industrial
Training Fund, ITF, for not relenting
in efforts to effectively discharge its
mandate as the Fund continues
to equip youths with requisite skills
and trainings that can take the
country out of poverty.
Speaking, yesterday, at the 2020
Industrial Training Fund, ITF Merit
awards ceremony at the Fund’s
corporate headquarters, Otunba
Adebayo said that ITF has been in
the forefront as it has become a
dependable ally of the Federal
Government through the
implementation of several skills
intervention programmes that have
trained over 500,000 since the
Director-General, Sir Joseph N. Ari,
assumed office in 2016.
Continues on page 22
purpose of clarity, banditry around
that axis began in 2015 in Allawa
and this has festered and consumed
the entire political axis with no
succour in sight. The consequences
have been desertion of ancestral
homes, destruction of economic
activities, hunger, diseases and other
humanitarian crises. Our people
have become destitutes with
hopelessness staring us in the face.
"It is incomprehensible that
criminals have become landlords in
a sovereign state with armed forces.
Terrorists and bandits control our
Continues on page 22
ours.”
Candido also explained that
AMAC had to collect tenement rate
from residents in the city in order
to provide infrastructure for rural
communities in the council.
According to him: “Tenement rate
issue is a two-way thing. You collect
from well-to-do residents and use
the resources to offer service to the
less-privileged communities. This
is important because 99 per cent
of the Federation Account
Allocations go to salaries. What is
left is too meagre to make any
impact in terms of infrastructure.
Therefore, the council has to
source funds from Internally-
Generated Revenue to provide the
needed developmental projects in
the communities.
“AMAC has 12 wards and what
we do is to go through the wards
every year to provide different
projects such as roads, water,
schools and electricity based on
the prioritised needs of each
ward.”
The trouble with ‘AMAC
Continues on page 22