Wake up and flush out terrorists with new fighter jets, it says
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Senators have pressed the military to “wake up” and deploy additional fire power in new fighter jets to hunt down terrorists across the North whose influence has spread South where a gang collected N10 million ransom to free victims on Wednesday.
In the latest copycat abductions in the South, 10 farmers kidnapped in Ayede-Ogbese in Ondo State regained freedom after N10 million was paid to the kidnappers whose initial demand was N100 million.
Channels Television reported that state Police Command spokesman Funmilayo Odunlami confirmed the victims regained their freedom in the early hours of the day.
One victim’s family member said a few hours after the abduction, the criminals contacted the family and demand N100 million ransom which they later reduced to N10 million after much negotiation.
Up in Abuja, the Senate made its resolution based on a motion tabled by Senator Bello Mandiya (APC, Katsina South) on the “urgent need for the Federal Government to take drastic actions to bring to an end the act of banditry and kidnapping in Faskari Local Government Area.”
Mandiya said banditry and kidnappings have become a daily occurrence in Katsina with huge loss of lives, means of livelihood, and displacement of communities.
He recounted that gunmen struck Ruwan Godiya in Faskari Council on 31 January and kidnapped 38 people.
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Pressing concern
Mandiya reiterated that the federal government has made efforts in curbing the menace by setting up Operation Sharan Daji and Inter-Agency Task Force to tackle cases of banditry, cattle rustling, and kidnapping in Katsina.
But he expressed concern that:
“The continuous security challenges and related attacks by bandits on towns, villages and communities in Faskari Local Government Area have meted untold hardship on the people and have subjected the affected areas under serious survival threat; and
“If this menace is not drastically and promptly addressed, the consequence is going to be huge on food sufficiency since the affected communities are mostly farmers.”
Senator Kabir Barkiya (APC, Katsina Central) faulted the inability of the military to contain the situation despite several calls for it to act.
What the Senate expects from the military
Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the repeated cases of kidnappings and killings make it imperative for the military to “wake up” to protect Nigerians.
He wondered why full scale action is yet to be carried out by the military in spite of increased funding for security in the 2022 budget.
His words: “The expectation of the Senate is that there is supposed to be a remarkable difference in success in terms of the fight against insurgence, banditry and militancy in Nigeria.
“The military is getting better funding from the government and what we expect is to see an improvement in output.
“I know the resources are not enough, but recently for one and a half years, government has upscaled the level of funding for our military.
“Secondly, when we declared the bandits as terrorists, my understanding was they are going to be dealt with ruthlessly now. I wonder whether that is the case.
“The military, like some of our colleagues have said, need to wake up. We want to see a difference because we have made a difference in terms of funding.
“I know funding alone will not be enough, but funding can make a difference and we expect a difference in outcome.
“Thirdly, we need to mobilise our citizens, because when a hundred people are kidnapped and abducted, they are not taken by aircraft, they are taken by motor bikes, pass through the villages and possibly towns. How come do we then say that nobody has seen something?
“We need our citizens to be part and parcel of our security architecture. In fact, there’s no way we can achieve better security for this country without the participation of the citizens in the fight against Insecurity.”
The Senate urged the security agencies to comb all known hide outs of the kidnappers to rescue the 38 persons abducted in Ruwan Godiya.
It also called on the federal government to send enough military personnel and fighter jets to apprehend the terrorists and restore normalcy in affected areas.