Niger probes Rafi crisis, clarifies austere measures

The Niger State Government has raised an investigative panel to probe last Sunday’s unrest at Pandogari in Rafi Local Council of the state where four lives were reportedly lost and scores injured.

Governor Abubakar Sani Bello, who dropped the hint yesterday while chatting with reporters after a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, described the situation as unfortunate.

He said his deputy, Ahmed Mohammed Ketso, has led a government delegation to the area to calm the situation, warning however, that anybody found to have been remotely connected to the mayhem would be severely dealt with.

“The situation was unfortunate in Pandogari. I think someone posted some blasphemous story about Prophet Muhammad and of course you know the sensitive nature when it comes to religion and one person was killed.‎ Later on, we heard that either the police or the army shot a civilian and three or four people lost their lives.

“We have instituted an investigative panel to investigate what happened so that we can address the situation. The deputy governor and my team are there at the moment, the situation is calm now. We will await the outcome of the investigative panel so that we guard against this happening next time. This is unacceptable and whoever is involved will be severely punished,” he threatened.

On the recent cost-cutting measures adopted by his administration, Bello said it was to conserve funds to run the state, denying media reports that the state was mulling pay cuts for workers.

Instead, he said government was seriously thinking on how to boost the revenue of the state to enable her face the challenges of meeting its increasing workers’ wage bill without resorting to borrowing.

Bello said from January till date, the state government has borrowed N 3 billion to augment allocations from the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC).

He warned that if nothing was done, the state government would have borrowed N 10 billion by December this year, a situation, he said, does not make any economic sense in view of the prevailing economic melt down.