At least fifty local communities have been displaced and people rendered homeless due to continued attacks by bandits in Zurmi LGA of Zamfara State.
Bello Hassan Shinkafi, member representing Zurmi/Shinkafi Constituency at the House of Representatives said over 500 people from his constituency are being held hostage by bandits while over fifty communities have been displaced and made IDPs as a result of banditry.
The Lawmaker who spoke to BBC Hausa said communities in the area are constantly being invaded by the bandits who comes at will and go at will, adding that in most of their attacks, they killed, abduct inflict injuries on people who decided to stay in their villages.
“It is not only Garin Gora, Zurmi LGA is no longer safe because attacks happened, and when they attack you will hear that people have been killed, abducted or injured. Just of recent, they abducted over 30 people in Nasararwa community, even on this Monday in Gidan Shaho they killed two police officers in a broad day light, injured many as I speak now they are trying to count the number of people abducted”, he said.
According to him there is the need for urgent review of the measures taken to contain banditry in the state, nothing that the efforts of the state and federal governments is worth commending but said much has to be done.
Shinkafi said the number of security personnel deployed to the area is meager, and many of them have stayed long in the state, which according to him they need to be changed and all their cries to authorities concerned were not heard.
“Honestly, the security personnel deployed to the area are small. The major issue is that many of them have stayed for over eight years in Zamfara and they need to be changed, so that they may not be in tangent with happenings in the state. We have reported this matter to relevant authorities but up to now they are salient over it”, he said.
WikkiTimes had earlier reported that Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal had requested the Chief of Defense Staff to deploy additional manpower to the state to fight banditry that ravaged many communities in the state.
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