Activities of informants who share intelligence with the bandits on the movement of their targets have aggravated the present state of insecurity in Niger State, the state Governor Abubakar Sani Bello has said.
He said this at a 1-day symposium on banditry and insecurity, organised by the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Ahmed Matane, the governor said farmers-herders clashes had degenerated to insecurity.
He said there was the need for government to tackle porous borders, interstate boundary disputes, poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and proliferation of small arms and light weapons.
Bello said there was also the need for coordinated and sustained joint security operations, strict surveillance on the proliferation of weapons, full deployment of ICT-Drones, trackers, communication systems, and the establishment of community policing to stem banditry.
Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Prof. Abubakar Baba Aliyu, who chaired the event, said the persistent influx of bandits and criminals from neighbouring states led to the steady rise of banditry, kidnapping, cattle rustlings and other criminality in the state.
The Vice-Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Abu-Kasim Adamu, said the symposium was organised to provide pathways to end the rising insecurity in the state.
