Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has had enough of bandits \u2014 and he\u2019s making that crystal clear. During a condolence visit to communities hit by recent attacks in Rijau and Magama LGAs, Bago told residents it\u2019s time to rise up and defend themselves.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will not negotiate with bandits; I will not pay ransom,\u201d he declared. \u201cOnce we start paying, they\u2019ll open shop on our heads and keep kidnapping people.\u201d<\/p>\n
The governor said the state is at \u201ca point of war,\u201d and everyone has to play a part in pushing back. While government is responsible for protecting lives and property, he reminded citizens that the constitution also gives them the right to self-defense.<\/p>\n
To back that up, Bago announced the recruitment of 10,000 young men and women into a new Joint Task Force \u2014 a community-driven force aimed at taking the fight to the criminals.<\/p>\n
And he\u2019s also going after one of the money trails behind the violence: illegal mining. The governor has banned all mining activities across Niger North Senatorial District \u2014 covering Mariga, Rijau, Magama, Kontagora, Wushishi, Borgu, Mashegu, and Agwara LGAs \u2014 citing intelligence that links mining operations to bandit activity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s suspicious that miners can walk freely in the forest while bandits don\u2019t touch them,\u201d Bago said, directing security agencies to arrest anyone caught mining in the affected areas.<\/p>\n
The governor also promised compensation for families of victims, medical help for the injured, and support for those who lost their livelihoods. His message to the criminals was equally clear: Niger State is taking back its land \u2014 and bandits will never find a safe haven again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Niger State Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has had enough of bandits \u2014 and he\u2019s making that crystal clear. During a condolence visit to communities hit by recent attacks in Rijau and Magama LGAs, Bago told residents it\u2019s time to rise up and defend themselves. \u201cI will not negotiate with bandits; I will not pay ransom,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":68023,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5807,7],"tags":[1024,2935,247],"class_list":["post-95606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-crime-and-violence","category-news","tag-bandits","tag-defend","tag-niger"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=95606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=95606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=95606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=95606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}