WE’RE STILL INSECURE, NIGER SETTLEMENTS TELL BURATAI AS ARMY ORDERS WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS
WE’RE STILL INSECURE, NIGER SETTLEMENTS TELL BURATAI AS ARMY ORDERS WITHDRAWAL OF TROOPS
Chief of Army Staff,
Gen. T. Y. Buratai
Over 20 communities
in Munya council area of Niger State have pleaded with the Chief of Army Staff,
Lt.-Gen. Tukur Yusuf Buratai, to extend the deadline for the withdrawal of
military personnel deployed to quell the incessant cases of kidnapping and
robbery in the area. The residents said they were not yet safe.
The appeal comes in
the wake of a directive for the troops to return to their barracks today.
The senator
representing Niger East in the National Assembly, David Umaru, who addressed a
press conference on behalf of the people in Minna, said the presence of the
soldiers had made the people live peacefully without any molestation from the
hoodlums.
He commended the
cordial relationship between the people and the troops while the operation
lasted.
Umaru noted that
since the deployment, no attack had been recorded, expressing the fear that the
demobilisation might endanger the prevailing peace in the area.
The senator said: “I
have no doubt in my mind that these criminals are still hanging around and
waiting to strike at the departure of these gallant officers.
“We appeal to the
Chief of Army staff to please allow the soldiers to stay a little longer. We
are making this appeal because we know that the troops have the capacity to
defend our people.”
He disclosed that
prior to the mobilisation of the soldiers, the poor farmers were made to pay as
much as N4 million as ransom for kidnapped relatives.
Umaru continued: “You
can imagine when these poor farmers are forced to sell their unripe farm
produce, houses and other things to pay ransom.”
