Cattle Rustling: Buhari Launches Special Task Force Wednesday
The Federal Government has deployed hundreds of soldiers to combat armed gangs that are terrorising residents of Zamfara State. The armed bandits have killed dozens of residents while also rustling cattle.
A source revealed to Daily Trust on Sunday that government has deployed soldiers and equipment to Zamfara State saying “they are presently stationed at the site where the previous administration in the state wanted to build an airport.”
The source said President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to travel to Zamfara State on Wednesday to launch the military offensive aimed at flushing out armed bandits from the state.
Top Presidency source confirmed to our correspondent yesterday that President Buhari would thereafter return to Abuja on Thursday. The source, neither denied nor confirmed that the president had deployed troops in the state.
He said it was only the spokesman of the Nigerian Army that could speak on troops’ deployment.
According to him, by the time the president’s programme is out this week, it will become clear whether the president is billed to launch troops’ deployment in the state.
Our source said the soldiers are drawn from various formations across the country with heavy military equipment. Maru Local Government Area is worst hit by the incessant attacks. Several farmers in the area have been killed by gunmen in recent times.
A similar operation is already ongoing along the Birnin Gwari axis of Kaduna State, which is also a den of murderous armed bandits that terrorise communities in Kaduna, Niger, Kebbi, Katsina and Zamfara states.
Leaders in Zamfara State have sustained calls on the Federal Government to deploy troops in the worst hit areas in order to curb incessant attacks. Senator Saidu Dansadau had recently written to President Muhammadu Buhari asking him to declare a state of emergency in Zamfara.
Dansadau, who addressed journalists in Abuja, blamed the state governor, Abdulaziz Yari, for the worsening security situation in the state.
He said in his letter to the president that the governor has abdicated his duties as chief security officer of the state saying “by Section 215 (4) of the Constitution, the governor is the chief security officer of the state. The Constitution envisages that to perform these onerous responsibilities, the governor is expected to be resident in the state and give his full attention to the governance of the state.
“I wish to bring to the attention of Mr. President that since the incumbency of the Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari Abubakar, which began five years ago, public perception is that the governor has spent only about 20 per cent of that whole period in Zamfara State.
“He had utilised the other 80 percent junketing from one part of the country to the other and shuttling around the globe. All matters of State that require action are kept waiting until he returns.
“Consequently, intelligence and security reports are kept in abeyance. For instance, at a period, out of 60 straight days, the governor spent only two days in Zamfara State.”
Dansadau said as a result, there were increasing threats to public order in the state with hundreds killed.
“If the killings in the remaining 23 state constituencies are added, the total number of lives lost can better be imagined. All these losses would have been averted were the governor alive to his constitutional responsibilities,” he added.
He said anything short of a state of emergency would “turn the thick forest between the southern border of Zamfara State with Katsina, Kaduna, Niger and Kebbi States into a national park of criminals and killers, worse than what the nation has ever witnessed”.