Osinbajo finds excuses for high incidence of insecurity, tells Nigerians in the Diaspora all would be well soon

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has described issues of banditry ravaging the North West, especially Zamfara and Katsina States, as a fight over the control of mining sites by armed groups.

He also said that some of the kidnapping stories mostly on social media handles were false and fuelled by politics.

The Vice President stated this when he spoke to Nigerians at a townhall meeting in New York on Sunday evening.

Urging Nigerians in the Diaspora always to be wary of social media reports on insecurity in Nigeria, he said “the social media tends to be hysterical about practically everything”.

Osinbajo stated this after he was bombarded with questions bothering on the security situation back home by the audience.

Many of them had wanted clarification on what Nigerian Government was doing over reports of killings and kidnappings in Nigeria which always trended on the internet.

Osinbajo said in his response, “With respect to general kidnapping which we have seen in parts of the country, again, this is not entirely new.

“In fact, some of the kidnapping stories you read or listen to are simply not true anywhere, some are fuelled by politics.

“There are cases of kidnapping, no question at all about that, but some of the more dramatic stories that you hear are simply not true.

“Every report of kidnapping we receive, we try to verify, and at the end of the day you find out that people just tell all sorts of stories.”

He assured them that President Muhammadu Buhari’s government was collaborating with the states to check kidnapping, tracking perpetrators with technology.

Noting that there has been recorded results, he assured the news “will be a lot better very soon”.

Explaining cause of banditry especially in Zamfara and Katsina states as fight over “resource control”, he said measures including shutting down of the mines, to address the problem are being considered by Buhari’s government.

On herdsmen, he said, “In the north central, we have the livestock transformation plan to address the farmers/herders conflict.

“Ultimately, it is ranching that will solve the problem because you cannot have people wandering across the the country with their cattle.

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“It is not helpful to them, this they know, because ranching is more convenient and profitable.

“So, we are building herd dams in the northern states so that people don’t necessarily come down south in search for water and green pastures for their herds.

“We are also trying to ensure we provide grazing areas before we come to cattle routes.”

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