Banditry: We’re not opposed to security measures

The Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) yesterday said it was not opposed to the security measures put in place by some governors of the northwestern states and Niger State to curb bandits’ activities.

The governors had suspended weekly markets and restricted the sale of petrol in jerry cans among other measures to curb growing security challenges in their respective states.

In a statement on Sunday, the forum’s Director of Publicity and Advocacy, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, had said the measures would embolden the bandits to wreak more havoc in communities where people had been at the mercy of criminals for a long time.

Speaking to Daily Trust yesterday, Baba-Ahmed clarified that the NEF supported the measures, but only drew the attention of the state governments to the difficulties of the affected communities.

He said communities must not be abandoned to the situation where they were locked down by government and still at the mercy of bandits and kidnappers.

He urged the state governments to be sensitive to the plight of the people already in difficulties and ensure that the security measures were brief.

“We did not condemn the measures taken by state governors to restrict a number of essential services like markets, communications and schools. What we did was to acknowledge the fact that it is possible that these measures were supported by intelligence which suggests that they will effectively curtail or eliminate the bandit activities in the rural areas,” he said.

He further stressed that state governments where the restrictions were placed should be supported by the federal government.