About 23 local government areas in Zamfara, Sokoto and Kebbi states are fighting for survival as cattle rearers, kidnappers and bandits continue to make life uneasy for them.
According to reports, these affected residents are forced to negotiate their daily lives with the bandits or migrate from their homes. In Sokoto state, the most affected areas are Isa, Gwadabawa, Sabon Birni, Tangaza, Goronyo and Illela.
Reports gathered also indicates that farmers have abandoned their farms, and some villages have been deserted.
Mallam Abubakar Bawa, the Chief Press Secretary to Ahmed Aliyu said the state government was aware of the situation aforehand.
Bawa said:
“We are giving priority to ensuring a safe environment.
“Addressing security challenges has remained top on our administration’s nine-point agenda.
“Our target as a government is to ensure that citizens sleep with their two eyes closed and continue to live and relate peacefully with one another.”
Also, Rufai Ahmad ASP, the Sokoto State Police Command said the Commissioner of Police, Ali Kaigama had engaged with the residents to help the flow of information and to address banditry activities.
In Zamfara State, a civil society activist, Faruk Shehu, said many communities in the 14 LGAs of the state have been displaced, with residents of Maru, Anka, Shinkafi, Maradun, Zurmi, Gusau and Bungudu LGAs worst affected.
Shehu said previous attempts at dialogue with the bandits had failed, resulting in the escalation of the security challenges in the state.
“The security challenges in the state started as cattle rustling and later transformed into banditry and kidnapping,” Shehu said.
He expressed the hope that the ongoing engagement started by Governor Dauda Lawal with the military and other security agencies would lead to an escalation of attacks on the bandits to secure the areas they have dominated.
