Panic Over Mass Movement Of Gunmen Into Niger Communities

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According to a report by Sun News, there is panic in communities in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State over the mass movement of gunmen into the area in the last few days fueling another bloody attack.

About 300 motorcycles, each carrying two men were sighted at Dogon Gonna in Kushaka district of Shiroro local government on Sunday afternoon and are currently camping there.

This development is coming barely three weeks after the bloody attack, targeting the Joint Security TaskForce camp in Galadiman Kogo where eight security personnel, eight local villages and unspecified numbers of the villagers were killed by gunmen.

Although there are no reports of any attack in the area since their arrival on Sunday, members of the communities in the area have been moving out to neighbouring communities as the mission of the gunmen is not yet known.

The Chairman of Shiroro local government area, Mallam Suleiman Chukuba confirmed the latest development to Daily Sun in Minna, saying that about 300 motorcycles each carrying two people were sighted, advancing towards Dogon Gonna in Kushaka district on Sunday.

“The people called me on Sunday to inform me that they saw about 300 motorcycles carrying gunmen and moving towards a community called Dogon Gonna. It is under the Kushaka district of my local government.

“Although we don’t know what their mission is but the people are already apprehensive and are beginning to move out of the areas. I strongly believed that they (gunmen) are those escaping from Zamfara and Katsina due to the military operations going on there.

“That is why we strongly believed that there is the urgent need for a military operation to start in the state without further delay. There is every possibility that these people can strike at any time,” he warned.

Meanwhile, the former Commissioner for Information, Culture and Tourism in the state, Jonathan Vatsa, has advised communities in Shiroro and Munya local government areas to go back to their tradition to be able to win the war against their enemies.

The Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the state who was reacting to the sustained attacks on communities in the two local government areas in recent, said it is now obvious that the conventional approach can not win the war against the gunmen.

The situation, he pointed out is further worsened by the “foot-dragging” of the Federal Government to come to the rescue of the state government to flush out these miscreants, adding “the president has been ordering military action against these enemies of the people only on the pages of newspapers but up till now we have not seen any military action physically in the state.

“We now have a situation in the state where the gunmen are the ones even taking the fight to the military in their camps. We have seen more than three such attacks on a military base in the state.

“This is unacceptable because the Nigerian military is too strong to be humiliated this way by these criminals, so I think something is wrong somewhere.

“That is why I strongly advised the people to go back to their strong tradition which we used to know if they must live in peace. The people of the areas being attacked by these gunmen used to be very rich in their tradition, so let them explore their tradition to fight these people”, he added.