IBRAHIM ABDULHAMID, OCTOBER 11, 2021, 04:53 PM
Ongoing military operations have squeezed bandits, reports have shown.
They are now starving, with no easy means of getting food, fuel and other basic amenities.
Major markets across the North West which serve them with the opportunities to restock weekly have been shut down, as part of military operations to checkmate their activities by the government.
This followed other similar measures taken by the governments, including a no-fly zone order issued by the president, Muhammadu Buhari, in a bid to end the six-year old banditry.
The latest of the orders was one shutting down telecommunications networks, lasting over three weeks, depriving the bandits a means to communicate.
Several reports have shown that these measures are having a toll on them.
Daily Trust reports that some of them who are hibernating in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area of Kaduna are demanding for already cooked food as ransom over kidnapped persons.
A source in one of the villages of the LGA, Babangida Yaro, told the paper that since the latest ban (of the weekly markets and sale of fuel), bandits operating along Damari, Kutemashi and Kuyello villages only asked for cooked food each time they abduct people.
‘There is relative peace around Damari, Kuyello, Kutemashi because the bandits have stopped attacking our communities. They usually stay in the forest and seize food items mostly cooked ones from vendors,’ the source told the paper.
He added that when they abducted two or three persons in farms, one is allowed to go and get them food from their relatives as ransom since there is no communication network to make contact.
The youth leader added that Dogon Dawa area is still not completely safe because villagers are still scared of accessing their farmlands.
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