Niger Govt Raise Special Security Squad To Fight Bandits

The Niger State Government created a special security unit on Monday to assure the safe return of the students kidnapped on May 30 from the Tegina Islamiyyah School, an Islamic school.

The outfit was introduced in Minna, the state capital, according to Governor Abubakar Sani-Chief Bello’s Press Secretary Mary Barje.

According to the announcement, a team made up of mixed security personnel was immediately deployed in the Rafi Local Government Area.

The abduction of the students was confirmed by the police and some inhabitants of Tegina, in the state’s Rafi Local Government Area.

The governor stated at the inauguration that the moment had come for the state administration to take serious measures to abolish banditry in the state once and for all.

He said: “We will give you all the necessary support to enable you to implement all your security strategies to ensure safe return of our abducted children and others, if any.

“We have tried our possible best not to make them succeed in forcing us to change our normal lives;they started by displacing farmers from their farmlands, next they moved to burning farms.

“Then, they moved to kidnapping and forcing us to close our schools, now they have started attacking Islamic schools, only God knows what is next.”

The governor assured the squad members that logistics would be supplied for them, as well as that their allowances and other financial advantages would be paid on time.

He praised the security forces for their efforts in the state’s ongoing struggle against bandits and other criminals.

“I am saddened by the killing of 20 vigilance corps members in Magama Local Government Area by bandits,” he stated.

Sani-Bello had previously met with parents of the abducted schoolchildren at the palace of Emir of Kagara, Ahmed Gunna, where he asked them to be patient as the government explored all options to ensure their children’s safe return.

The emir expressed gratitude to the governor for all of his assistance to his domain, particularly in the area of security, as well as for his assistance to the family of the kidnapped schoolchildren.

Abubakar Alhassan, the school’s headmaster, revealed that 15 of the school’s abducted teachers had escaped from their captors in Zamfara.

The teachers are presently being held in a military facility in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State, where they would be given over to the government soon, according to Mr Alhassan.