Commissioner of Police reveals challenges in tackling banditry in Niger

The Niger State Commissioner of Police Alh Adamu Usman, has attributed bad terrain and effective communication network to the increasing attacks on the communities in Shiroro and Rafi Local Government Areas by armed bandits.

He stated that the Command has been facing untold difficulty in confronting the armed bandits as a result of the bad roads and within the affected communities in the two Local Government Areas that have been subjected to series of attacks by the bandits.

Speaking with CAPITAL POST in an interview in his office Wednesday, Alh Adamu Usman stressed that the spate of the incessant attacks by the armed men was worrisome.

According to him, the Inspector General Of Police, Mohammed Adamu had deployed 3 units of mobile police force from Kano and Jos to the affected Communities.

“Even with the deployment of the mobile police men, we still experience difficulty in coping with the terrain as most of the roads leading to those communities are not. motorable.”

He disclosed that most of the bandits came through the bush path along the bordering states of Kaduna and Zamfara to carry out their operation and escape back through the same routes to the bush, adding that the armed bandits are more familiar with the terrain than the security agencies.

He explained that apart from the
bad state of the routes, the Commissioner of Police stated that it take the Police six hours to drive to some of the vilages that are proned to the attacks.

He insisted that before the arrival of his men to the communities, the bandits would have carried out their attacks and follow the same routes to escape.

He further disclosed that the combined men of the mobile police and convetional police and men of the community vigilante group are already placed in some strategic areas within the community to assist in safeguarding the vilagers.

“Most of the vilages are not in the same location as most of them are farmers scattered in different locality”, which according to him, make the armed bandits easily carried out their attacks on them.

He said the affected villages include Kurebe, Kuki, Gurmana, and Allawa all in Shiroro Local Goverment Area of the State and Kusherki Maikujeri and some part of Rafi Local Government Area of Niger State which are bordering Kaduna and some part of Zamfara States.

Police boss noted with concern the infiltration of the armed bandits into Niger State from the neighbouring Kaduna and Zamfara States assured that with the support of the Inspector General of Police that deployed the team of Mobile Police men to the Communities, the activities of the armed bandits will soon be curtail to the barest level.