House: Security Agencies, Local Vigilante Should Flush Out Bandits, Herders from Forests

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The House of Representatives has called on the police and other security agencies to liaise with local vigilante and embark on a holistic combing of forests in all parts of Nigeria to forestall the hibernation and continued presence of bandits and herdsmen in their hideouts. 

The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion moved at the plenary on Wednesday by Hon. Billy Osawaru.

Moving the motion, Osawaru said Nigeria over time has been faced with the scourge of insecurity, including terrorism, banditry and militia activities leading to unfortunate killings, kidnapping, abductions, armed robbery, cattle rustling, vandalism of critical national infrastructure, which seem to have defied several strategies designed to tackle and mitigate it.

He added that 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 N2.23 trillion 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.

The lawmaker added 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, saying there was a need for a holistic approach to extend this action to the neighbouring forests of South-south region to prevent them from using it as an escape route or new found home.

Osawaru noted that the ugly trend of insecurity is detrimental to the growth, development and future of the nation as panic and tension continually mount on the citizens regarding their safety, while investors’ confidence are reduced, farm lands were abandoned resulting to decrease in food production, scarcity, hunger and inflation, as well as displacement of large population.

He lamented that the continued presence of banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity in Nigeria underscore a clear deficiency in the 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.

He expressed worry that if wilful and productive actions are not deployed to ascertain, review, develop and strengthen comprehensive strategies to curbing this unprecedented wave of security crises, its scope would continue to widen, perhaps to areas that had been relatively peaceful, wreaking havoc and hampering economic activities thereby inflicting untold hardship and hunger on the citizens.

The House resolved: “Urge the Nigerian police and other security agencies to liaise with local vigilante and the likes to embark on a holistic combing of forests in all part of Nigeria to forestall the hibernation and continued presence of bandits and herdsmen in their hideouts.”

It also mandated the House Committees on Police Institutions, Army, Interior and Legislative Compliance to ensure compliance and report to the House within four weeks for further legislative actions.