By Wole Mosadomi

Minna – The Niger Emirate Council comprising six local government areas, LGAs, has cried out for help over the incessant bandit attacks on its communities.

The months of unending attacks has forced the leaders to convene an emergency security summit to address the situation.

The affected local governments are Kontagora, Mariga, Magama, Rijau, Wushishi, and Mashegu.
There have been persistent attacks by bandits on these local government areas in the past few months, with many lives lost and scores of villagers abducted.

Many residents, predominantly farmers, have been forced to flee their ancestral homes due to the frequency and brutality of the attacks.

The worst-hit areas are Gulbin Boka and Kwanan Dutse in Mariga Local Government, where two military camps were overrun by bandits, resulting in the deaths of 17 soldiers and injuries to many others.
The summit, tagged “First Kontagora Emirate Security Engagement and Town Hall Meeting,” is being convened by the Speaker of the Niger State House of Assembly, Abdulmalik Sarkindaji.

In a statement issued in Minna on Wednesday, the Speaker said the summit had become inevitable as a means of finding lasting solutions to the escalating security challenges.

“The need for a security summit has become necessary since all conventional approaches to addressing the security challenges within the Emirate have failed to yield the desired results.

While security agents continue to battle the onslaught by these enemies of the people, the situation has worsened in recent times, leading to the killing of promising Nigerian soldiers and innocent villagers. This cannot continue.

As a people, we must come together and agree on the way forward, because these criminals are not magicians—they are human beings like us. The situation must be confronted so that our people, especially the farmers, can enjoy some level of peace.

The esteemed sons and daughters of the Kontagora Emirate cannot fold their arms and allow these animals, disguising as human beings, to kill our people and our security agents, and make life meaningless for the entire population,” he declared.

The Speaker added that the Security Engagement and Town Hall Meeting is aimed at collectively addressing the pressing issue of insecurity in the Emirate, and he called on all stakeholders to participate actively in finding a lasting solution.

The summit, scheduled for Saturday, July 5, at the Emir of Kontagora’s Palace, is expected to have in attendance all former and present senators, members of the House of Representatives (past and present), current state assembly members, commissioners, local government chairmen, director-generals, and special advisers.

Also expected at the meeting, according to the Speaker, are all retired military officers from the rank of lieutenant, all Deputy Inspectors General (DIGs) and Assistant Inspectors General (AIGs) of police, former and present commissioners of police, current councillors, and other prominent sons and daughters of the Emirate.

“Security is a collective responsibility,” he said, “hence the need for all hands to be on deck.”