By Ummi Ismaeel,
Minna
Senator Mohammed Sani Musa, representing Niger-East in the Nigeria’s Upper legislature, has again pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to stem killings of innocent and harmless Nigerlites by suspected Boko Haram terrorists in the state.
Musa’s call is coming on the heels of renewed onslought by the terrorist groups whose activities have claimed hundreds of lives, including members of the joint security forces and properties worth several millions of Naira destroyed.
“I have had reasons to call on the federal government to address issues of insecurity in my constituency, Niger East-Senatorial zone but either by commission or omission no serious efforts had been made to bring the situation to normal,” Musa said.
The senator in a statement on Friday regretted that some local government areas had been sacked and the government was yet to react to protect them from the criminals who have continued to operate with impunity.
His words: “The security situation in places like Rafi, Shiroro, Munya LGA has continued to get worse with villagers (my constituents) being killed, kidnapped, maimed, raped almost on a daily basis and their property dispossessed.
“For years now these people cannot earn a living for themselves because insurgents and bandits have taken over their farmlands. Several of the villages have also been deserted because of the activities of these blood thirsty villains”.
The situation has become more complicated to the extent that the few areas where semblance of security used to exist in the affected local government areas had been wiped out totally by the bandits. This, according to Musa, is totally unacceptable.
Despite appeals to the military and the police to remain and secure the villagers from the criminals, Musa said that the Special Task Force has refused to heed the people’s plea after it was sacked from Allawa and Bassa hence leaving the communities at the mercy of bandits who raid their villages daily, demanding huge ransom from families of their victims.
Most recent in this tale of woes is the recent sacking of the military from their base in Zagzaga during which a senior military officer is still missing, one military truck burnt and another taken away by the bandits, the statement further indicated.
“Like what happened at Allawa and Bassa, the soldiers have vacated the area, meaning that in the whole of Shiroro and Munya local government area, there is no single policeman or soldier to protect these armless villagers,” he lamented.
While condemning the activities of the ‘villains’ who are on expansionist action against the affected communities, Musa commiserated with the Nigerian Army for the loss of materials in Zagzaga and expressed hope that the missing soldier would be rescued alive.
The statement which also expressed fears that Nigeria is fast drifting to extinction said, “All these are pointers to the serious danger we are in this country. Therefore the President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces should take immediate action to stem these dangerous trends before they explode beyond what can be managed.
“Latest incident is a wake-up call on the need for our nation’s security operatives to re-strategize and end the siege by these insurgents not only in Niger-East but across Nigeria because daily people are being kidnapped, killed police stations sacked Correctional facilities forced open for criminals to continue their nefarious activities”.