By Laleye Dipo
The Niger State Government has given the reason why the pupils of Salihu Tanko Islamiyya School in Tegina are still been held hostage by their abductors, saying the parents of the children kicked against military operation for their rescue.
The Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Ahmed Ibrahim Matane, said in Minna on Monday that government wanted to use the military to raid the forests where the girls are being kept but the parents opposed the plan because of the likelihood of a collateral damage to some of the girls.
“Government wanted to use the special security corps it launched in mid June to enter the forests and confront the bandits but the parents of the kids begged that they would not like to lose any child. The parents came and begged us to allow them exhaust all the peaceful means to secure their children and that’s why we halted the operation.
“You know this type of operation will end up in collateral damage. We know where these bandits are; we are monitoring their movement,” Matane said.
The government scribe also submitted that the government has a policy of not paying ransom to bandits because the money paid has been discovered to be used to buy more arms and ammunition with which they intimidate ordinary citizens.
Matane also disclosed that the state government has been single handedly funding all the security operations in the state, adding that no fewer than 1,000 soldiers and policemen and men of the local vigilante are catered for on daily basis.
According to him, though the federal government provides the personnel, “we as a state gives daily allowances to these security operatives”.
“We provide vehicles, sometimes boots, allowances to boost the morale of the men and also food and medications to these gallant officers,” he said, and expressed gratitude to the security agencies for their efforts to maintain peace and security in the state
He said the greatest challenge being faced by the government in the battle against banditry is how to overcome the internal saboteurs, disclosing that “informants and other merchants of terror have posed the greatest clog in efforts to end the menace”.
