Boko Haram takes over 42 communities, sacks over 5000 villagers in Niger

No fewer than 42 communities in Niger State have fallen under the control of Boko Haram, with about 5,000 villagers displaced in the last three days.

Musa Sani, the Senator representing the Niger East, raised this alarm on Tuesday while presenting his motion on the “urgent need for the Federal Government to Deploy Troops and Other Security Apparatus To Immediately Bring an End to the Menace of Insurgency and Terrorism In Niger State and Other Parts of Nigeria” during Senate plenary.

The lawmaker decried that the Niger East Senatorial District of Niger State has come under constant and sustained multiple deadly attacks by terrorists who are always armed with assorted, sophisticated and dangerous weapons.

“About 42 communities across the two local government areas of Shiroro and Munya Local Government have so far fallen under the Boko Haram control with about 5,000 villagers already displaced in the last three days”, he said.

“They have kidnapped many and their wives seized from them and forcefully attached to Boko Haram members. Three military camps in Allawa, Bassa and Zagzaga in the two local government areas have been sacked. The insurgents killed some security personnel in the last month of renewed attacks.

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“Boko Haram terrorist have mounted their flags in many of the villages they have captured, such as Kaure, Alawa and Magami. Inhabitants of these war-torn parts of the State have been abandoned and left to their fate, compelling them to wallow in perpetual agony and abject misery”, he further said.

The lawmaker also lamented that schools had been turned into IDP camps following the sacking of nearly 5600 villagers from their ancestral homes in Shiroro, Rafi and Munya local government areas in the last few weeks by bandits who raided the towns and villages.

At least 475 people have been killed by Bandits in Niger East between January 2020 to date, Sani said.

He expressed fears over the dates of Abuja following attacks on neighbouring Niger state. He said if the attacks persist, it will negatively affect food sufficiency and the economic diversification policy of the federal government.

The lawmaker, therefore, sought the establishment of a permanent military and police command base in the affected communities and the immediate deployment of troops.