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From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has mandated the police and other security agencies to liaise with local vigilante groups to comb all the forests across the country.
The House said this was necessary to forestall the hibernation and continued presence of bandits and herdsmen in their hideout in the various forests.
The parliament also mandated its Committees on Police Institutions, Army, Interior and Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance with the resolution. The joint Committee is expected to report back to the House within four weeks for further legislative action.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Billy Osawaru, on the need for holistic measures to rid the country of bandits, using the forests as their hideouts.
Osawaru, in his motion, noted that the country has been contending with security challenges, including terrorism, banditry and militia activities leading to unfortunate killings, kidnapping, abductions, armed robbery, cattle rustling among others.
According to him, “the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its reports titled ‘the Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey (CESPS) 2024,’ revealed that Nigerians paid a total of N2.23tn as ransom across Nigeria between May 2023 and April 2024 and also, recorded approximately 51.89 million crime incidents across Nigerian households in the period under review.
“Further informed that the Amotekun Corps has mobilised over 2,000 personnel to flush out bandits and other criminals operating in forests in the South-West region, and there is need for a holistic approach to extend this action to the neighboring forests of South-South region to prevent them from using the it as escape route or new found home. “
The lawmaker, while noting that insecurity was militating against the development of the country, stated that farm lands have been abandoned resulting in food scarcity, hunger and inflation as well as displacement of a large population.
“The continued presence of banditry, kidnapping, and other forms of insecurity in Nigeria underscore a clear deficiency in our country’s security architecture thereby necessitating a critical need to reassess, reevaluate and reinvent the nation’s response and tactics for combating these unconscionable security breaches.
“If wilful and productive actions are not deployed to ascertain, review, develop and strengthen comprehensive strategies to curbing this unprecedented wave of security crises, then its scope will continue to widen, perhaps to areas where there has been relatively peaceful.”
