Lai Mohammed says killings have reduced, lists security measures taken by government

chika ebuzor

September 11, 2018 8:17 PM

Lai Mohammed made this known at a Special Town Hall meeting on security in Gusau, Zamfara State, on Monday,

The minister of information and culture, Lai Mohammed has said that President Buhari’s administration has reduced the killings arising from the Fulani herdsmen crisis in Nigeria.

The minister made this known at a Special Town Hall meeting on security in Gusau, Zamfara State, on Monday, September 10, 2018.

According to Vanguard, he said the “drastic fall in the killings resulted from concerted and committed actions by the Federal Government to curtail the farmers-herders clashes, cattle rustling and other acts of banditry.

”Let me say straight away that the killings, resulting from farmers-herders clashes, cattle rustling, trans-border crimes and banditry, among others, have fallen drastically. Unfortunately, this has not received the kind of media coverage that was given to the killings. I appeal to the media to correct this.”

Situation will improve

Mohammed also told Nigerians that the situation of things will improve, adding that the killings have nothing to do with ethnicity or religion.

”I have no doubt that the good people of Zamfara can testify to the drastic reduction in the activities of cattle rustlers and other bandits in the state since the Federal Government deployed a 1000-strong military force, comprising the army, air force, police and the civil defence, to launch fierce attacks on the bandits terrorising the villages and towns of Zamfara State.

”Those who are bent on exploiting our national fault lines have distorted the narrative to give the killings ethnic and religious colouration, and this has aggravated the killings. We must repudiate them, even as the Federal Government continues to consolidate on the successful efforts to end the killings,” he added.

Security measures taken by FG

Vanguard also reports that the minister said that the security measures put in place include “the establishment of the Army’s 2 Battalion Forward Operating Base (FOB) in Kanfanin Doka Village, Birnin-Gwari, Kaduna State; the establishment of a new Area Command and two additional Divisional Police Headquarters in the Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna State; and the establishment by Nigerian Air Force of Quick Response Wings (QRW) in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States.

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“Others are the deployment of Special Forces to these Quick Response Wings; the inauguration, by the Nigeria Police Force, of a new Mobile Squadron in Takum, Taraba State and Operation, ‘Whirl Stroke’, operating in Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba and Zamfara states, to tackle the menace of armed herdsmen, cattle rustlers, communal militias, kidnappers and other bandits.”

A United States Congressman and senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Chris Smith recently urged President Buhari to speak up against the herdsmen killings in various states across Nigeria.

The Congressman said that the killings might get worse as the 2019 elections draw near, if nothing is done to curb it.

Smith also expressed displeasure over what he described as the nonchalant attitude of the Nigerian government on the issue.

chika ebuzor