Insecurity has impoverished my people, Bello cries out

From Okwe Obi, Abuja

Niger State governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, has raised the alarm over widespread insecurity in his state, decrying that the situation has widened the gap of poverty as most of them do not go to their farms for fear of being kidnapped.
Bello made this known when the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, flagged off the disbursement of over N8 million to 4,000 women in the state under the Federal Government’s Cash Grant for Rural Women.
Represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Ahmed Alli, he said that the grant would lift many women in the state out of abject poverty, saying it came at a time when the people of Niger State had been impoverished following incessant banditry attacks which had forced many people to relocate to IDP camps, cattle rustling and lately the Covid-19 scourge.
In a statement signed yesterday by the minister’s Special Adviser on Media, Nneka Ikem Anibeze, the governor said: “I thank Mr President for this initiative of empowering rural women all over the country through this Special Cash Grant.
“We are grateful for all the Federal Government interventions given to the state especially during the floods, banditry, Conditional Cash Transfer, GEEP, N-Power and the Home-Grown School Feeding Programme amongst others.
“We still need more of the intervention in Niger State. Our people have been further impoverished following insecurity caused by banditry, rustling, and other social issues.”