Bandits killing more Nigerians than COVID-19, Lawmaker laments

• condemns compulsory wearing of face mask

Hon Mohammed Gudaji Kazaure, representing kazaure/roni/Gwiwa/Yankashi federal constituency has lamented the incessant killings in the country by bandits, demanding that government concentrate more on solving  insecurity rampaging the country, rather than waste resources on COVID-19 pandemic.

Hon Kazaure who disclosed this during a motion on need for relevant security agencies to bring an end to the spate of kidnappings, armed banditry and killings across the country, said bandits and Boko Haram have killed more Nigerians in a single day than the Coronavirus.

“Nigerians don’t see Covid-19 as a threat. They’re not afraid of the pandemic, but are afraid of bandits and Boko Haram who have prevented them from going to farm which is their only source of survival, hence the need for government to prioritize the issue of insecurity in the country.

“Let’s look at how we became serious on the issue of coronavirus and not be serious in the issue of this killings by bandit. Everything the government is doing as welfare for the people is being overshadow by the killings in this country.

According to him, security agencies in this country have failed us, especially the DSS whose major task is intelligence gatherings, “SSS are not doing their job because if bandits are coming from the forest to invade villages and towns, SSS should have detected them and inform the police and military.

“The problem is that these people are coming in from the forest, despite the security agencies being aware, the bandits will still come and spend hours in a village, not minute, killing people and burning houses and even relax there. And later on the security people will go there to carry corpse.

“So, Mr. Speaker, all we’re doing in this government, people are not giving us credit because of insecurity. More so, those affected villages are the one producing majority of the foods we eat in this country.

“80% of the farmers cannot go to the farms, so in the next one year, all what we have will finish, and since the farmers are not allow to farm for the future, couple with the ban on food importation, the common people are looking for us, so gradually, if we allow this insecurity to continue, people will take the laws into their hands.

“And they will began to go to houses of wealthy people to attack them because they don’t have food to eat because if you go to rural areas, the only security the people have is to farm what they will eat and as a result the country is at peace.

He lamented that despite the huge appropriation to security agencies, insecurity has remained a huge embarrassment to the country to the extent that state governors now pay bandits money.

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