• Sule urges calm, action against bandits
• Sokoto LG chairman denies inaction
Community leaders and council chairmen from Charanchi and Batagarawa council areas in Katsina State, at the weekend, signed a “peace agreement” with a group of bandits.
At the meeting, one of the armed men addressed residents directly, saying the insurgency and kidnappings were shaped by wider political decisions rather than only local actors.
“It was the government that wanted us to engage in banditry, but now it has called us and told us to stop. Therefore, by God’s grace, we have stopped from today,” said one of the bandits during the peace meeting.
“If the government wants all this insecurity to end, they have the power to end it — but they don’t want it to end. For the past two months, we have been trying to initiate a peace talk, but we were unable to because they didn’t know where we were hiding.
“But when they finally decided to meet us, they were able to find and talk to us today. Peaceful coexistence and the end of insecurity depend on the Nigerian leaders. If they want us to keep striking and attacking, we will. But if they want peace, we will also make it happen.
“We don’t have the power or wisdom to bring peace to the country except through the Nigerian government, because everything is under their control. Despite people saying that we are attacking, it is the government that made us do it, he added.
MEANWHILE, a customs officer has been killed following an attack by suspected Lakurawa terrorists on a Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) checkpoint in Kaoje, Bagudo Local Council of Kebbi State.
Armed bandits suspected to be members of the Lakurawa group reportedly launched a deadly attack on a camp belonging to NCS officers in the community.
According to local sources, the assailants invaded the facility in large numbers on Saturday night, opening fire indiscriminately on the officers.
One Customs personnel was reportedly killed on the spot before the attackers set the camp ablaze.
The assailants, reportedly riding on motorcycles, opened fire before fleeing towards the border forests.
As of press time, neither the Kebbi State government nor the NCS had issued an official statement on the incident.
The development was disclosed yesterday in a post on X by Bakatsine, a conflict and crisis analyst on insecurity in the Northwest.
He noted that the latest attack comes shortly after another major security incident in the same local council.
FOLLOWING the recent invasion of Sarkin Noma in Keana council area of Nasarawa State, Governor Abdullahi Sule has urged calm and decisive action against bandits, noting that he is aware of the gradual infiltration of bad elements constituting security threats to residents.
His senior special adviser on Public Affairs, Peter Ahemba, made this known in a statement issued yesterday in Lafia.
The statement read in part: “We wish to stress that the state government will not watch those enemies of peace succeed in their evil acts against the peace-loving citizens, as no effort would be spared to sustain the hard-earned relative peace achieved by the Abdullahi A. Sule-led government over the years.
“We condemn in the strongest terms the recent midnight attack on residents of Sarkin Noma Community in Keana Local Government Area by yet-to-be-identified gunmen and other similar incidents in the area.
“The government has since directed security agencies to ensure that the perpetrators are apprehended and brought to justice without delay.
“Furthermore, residents are assured that the state government is working closely with security agencies and other relevant stakeholders to implement the latest security measures taken to address the situation.
Sokoto council chair denies inaction in bandits’ attack that left six dead
MOREOVER, the Chairman of Isa Local Council of Sokoto State, Shareef Abubakar Kamarawa, has denied a lack of response to the early warnings in a bandit attack that left six dead and several abducted in Bargaja village of the council.
In a statement yesterday, the council boss described the allegation as false, misleading, and not reflective of the facts on the ground.
According to him, before the attack, he received an intelligence report about suspicious movements in the area, and the council immediately mobilised local security guards and alerted relevant security agencies for swift intervention.
