FIJ
A counter-terrorism soldier with the Twitter handle @jassjegs has shared a terrible experience he had while travelling through a jungle in Niger State in 2021.
The soldier explained that while on a free ride from Lagos to Maiduguri, he was surprised when the driver chose to drive through a thick forest rather than a traceable route.
The driver said the route was his best bet to escape from the Nigerian Customs officers who might want to check his vehicle’s legitimacy, according to the soldier. He would soon find out that the suspicious route was under the control of arm-wielding individuals who charged drivers some money before allowing them to pass.
THE BANDITS ALWAYS COME FOR CATTLE
“The bandits, often in hundreds (as people say, though I’ve never encountered them), always come for the villagers’ cattle,” the source further disclosed to FIJ.
While he could not ascertain the reason for this, he said there were chances that the bandits would sell off the cows they steal from villagers. He, however, added that villagers are sometimes killed and kidnapped during the invasions.
“The bandits came across the villages but couldn’t get cattle. This was so because upon hearing of the bandits, the villagers packed their cattle to a distant location.
“So, the bandits kept going down to the villages until they caught up with the villagers and raided their cows. They were in the Kundu- Akare-Girin axis for like two days.
“They were going back to Kundu so they could return to where they came from, but the army were already at that junction. The bandits and soldiers clashed and people on both sides lost their lives.
“The bodies of the soldiers who were killed were brought into Federal Medical Centre, Zungeru.”
WHY THE ATTACKS KEEP HAPPENING
Since the bandits often move in large numbers, they can be easily spotted before they reach their targeted villages. But the source said informants are emboldening the bandits.
“The informers always tell or guide the insurgents to where the cattle are because their main aim is the cattle. After they get a good number of cattle, they begin to withdraw from the villages. Sometimes they kill innocent people they encounter, but their goal is always the cattle.”
Also, according to the source, the lack of stationary security personnel on the ground to handle the insurgents before their invasion poses another security risk for villagers.
He said there used to be a good number of mobile police officers in Kundu and things were getting better until the officers were redeployed.
“I don’t really know where they were redeployed to, plus I can’t remember the exact year, but let’s say like two to three years ago.”
RESIDENTS ARE FED UP
FIJ gathered from the source that there was an attack in the area before the last Eid celebration and the security agencies seem incapable of stopping the attacks.
“The residents are fed up,” the source said. “And we need permanent security personnel in that axis.
While he confirmed that there is a police station in the community, he opined that it clearly can’t handle the bandits. He shared the same sentiment about the local vigilantes. “They can’t even halt their movement, let alone handle them,” he said.
This source apparently believes that only soldiers can combat and suppress the bandit attacks on these villages.
“The military intervention was okay, but they had to come in from either Minna or Kontagora because there is no barrack or any large military outpost nearby,” he said.
