By Correspondent in Minna.
Massive security measures have been beefed up at Kainji National park in the Borgu Local Governnent Area of Niger state as the federal government mounts massive military onslaught against members of the ISWAP and armed bandits to prevent them from turning the park to their new perational base.
Sources said action of the federal government has to do with move by the fleeing groups from other states and local governments in the North-West and North-Central states, where military operations against them have been very intense, to land at the park.
Niger State Commissioner for Local Government and Internal Security, Mr. Emmanuel Umar, who confirmed this to Journalists in Minna on Monday recalled that in the last one week or so, the state had witnessed intensive military operations from Mashegu to Borgu up to Mokwa.”
According to him, fragments of the armed groups sighted along the extreme northern parts of the country, have been neutralised, adding that a number of them were apprehended and taken into custody, while a appreciable number were believed to be hibernating and terrorising some communities in Niger state.
The commissioner, who affirmed that the terrorists were either being defeated or dislodged, said that the state government would make it difficult for them to settle in any part of its territory, Kainji National park inclusive..
The national park is said to be a vast forest which spreads up to neighbouring Benin republic.
He blamed the continued siege by terror groups on the state to the large l size of the state, adding that a local government in the state could be bigger in size when compared to the side of the South-eastern Nigeria.
The Commissioner also identified difficult terrain of the state as one of the factors responsibility for the state government’s inability to arrest the terrorists.
The commissioner, who explained that some communities were already enjoying peace, as the terror groups had been flushed out from their areas said, the state government had stepped up efforts to make sure that the armed bandits do not return to the state.
Umar disclosed that peace had been restored in some communities such as Chibane and Galadima-kogo in Shiroro local government area, pointing out that the villagers had been returning to their ancestral homes to start their life again.
The commissioner who lauded security agencies for increasing efforts to arrest insecurity in the state, urged other security stakeholders to join hands with the state government to end the activities of the terrorist groups.
Edited by Dada Ahmed.
