FG committed to tackling cattle rustling, armed banditry, kidnapping

The Federal Government has said that killings, resulting from farmers-herders clashes, cattle rustling, trans-border crimes and banditry, among others, have reduced drastically in the last two months.

Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed stated this yesterday during a special Townhall Meeting on security held in Gusau, Zamfara State.

He said the drastic fall in the killings is as a result of concerted and committed actions by the Federal Government in curbing the menace.

“I have no doubt that the good people of Zamfara can testify to the drastic reduction in the activities of cattle rustlers and other bandits in the state since the Federal Government assembled a 1000-strong military force, comprising the army, air force, police and the civil defence, to launch fierce attacks on the bandits terrorising the villages and towns of Zamfara State. The situation will continue to improve until the violence has stopped” he said.

He said those who are bent on exploiting the country’s national fault lines have distorted the narrative to give the killings ethnic and religious coloration, and this has aggravated the killings.

“We must repudiate them, even as the Federal Government continues to consolidate on the successful efforts to end the killings” he said.

Alhaji Mohammed said that the measures taken to curtail the farmers-herders clashes, cattle rustling and other acts of banditry by the Federal Government include the deployment of a Joint Military Intervention Force (JMIF), comprising Regular and Special Forces personnel from the Army, Air Force and

Navy, and working in collaboration with the Nigeria Police Force, Department of State Security (DSS), and Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC).