Foreigners being recruited as bandits via social media —Gov Sani-Bello

The Governor of Niger State, Abubakar Sani Bello has said foreigners, especially from Mali and Sudan, are being recruited as bandits in the North through social media.

He made this revelation on Wednesday when he spoke with newsmen at the State House after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.

He said he had told Buhari about the matter and other security challenges faced by Niger State.

“The situation is very bad. Niger is 73,000 square kilometers. It’s the size of the entire South-South and South-East. So, first of all, we have a limited number of security personnel and I think we have to start thinking of increasing the number so that we are able to cover most of the local government within the state.

“Some of our local governments are up to 6,000 to 7,000 square kilometers. For example, the Bobi Grazing Reserve, established by the state government, the CBN and the Federal Government to stop the movement of cattle and avoid herders/farmers conflict, has become a target.

“That is the only location where you can find in one constituency 5,000 to 6,000 herds of cows. So, most of the bandits have started focusing their attention on the Bobi Grazing Reserve. Because we have investors that have started investing in capital, equipment and processing facilities.

“We do not want to discourage them. So, we applied most of our resources and efforts towards protecting the grazing reserve.

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“But we are having an influx of bandits from neighbouring states, especially Zamfara and Kaduna states. It is difficult to patrol those areas because vehicles do not go there and it is a forest, which means we will need the federal might, especially the Air Force. By the way, the Air Force has been doing extremely well in recent times to support our ground operations.

“In one particular case, we arrested bandits that are foreigners from as far as Sudan and Mali and they came on motorcycles.

“They are being recruited through social media, through Facebook in some cases. They confessed to this”. The activities of bandits differ from place to place. Some are cattle rustlers. Some believe they are fighting some kind of jihadist activity. Some believe they are fighting corruption. They see any uniformed person, political office holders as corrupt.

“We have a major problem and it must stop,” the governor said.

Speaking further, he said that the dynamics of the criminal activities have changed.

“They started with armed robbery. Then, they moved to cattle rustling and then, to kidnapping as a means of getting money.

“But recently, the trend has changed. They started burning farms and animals. So, this has given me some concerns and at the same time, it has kept me thinking. What is the motive?

“I can understand if you kidnap, you are looking for money. But, when you burn farms, then, there is something else happening. Or when you kill animals. They go to villages and kill animals. They don’t steal.

“So, if you stop people from going to farms, it means you are trying to deprive that nation of food security. Why will someone want to deprive people of food security? Niger State has the capacity of feeding the entire country. We have the water bodies for dry season farming, we produce a lot of rice, maize.”

Noting that he had been in a meeting with bandits, Governor Bello said he could not imagine himself as a state governor and chief security officer of a state, sitting down and negotiating with bandits.

“Bandits are never honest in their talks. Even when they were given the opportunity they failed to keep the agreement. And whenever they surrender their arms and they don’t ask for anything in return, then, you can tell it is not an honest negotiation,” he added.

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