By Adenle Ahmed Abiola
Copyright theeagleonline
The Kogi State Government has vowed to treat as terrorists any youth in the state who indulge in aiding and abetting bandits to cause mayhem on innocent citizens.
Jerry Omadara, State Security Adviser to Kogi State Governor, Usman Ododo, stated this at the palace of Elegbe of Egbe on Monday while giving a progress report and the effort of the state government on the fight against insecurity in Kogi West.
According to him, intelligence information at their disposal indicated that some youth in Okun land used motorcycles to convey weapons and food stuff to the bandits in the forest.
He alleged that about six or seven Okun youths are already in his black book for being in the payrolls of the bandits, assuring that since some of them have connections with bandits, the government will not hesitate to treat them like bandits.
“Regrettably, the bandits are now operating with the indigenes of Okunland. The bandits have gotten our women selling soft drinks, bread and other food items.
“The women supplied them with food items, and we’re giving them vital information.
“There are people in Yagba West who paid the bandits money so that they won’t be kidnapped. We will expose such people at the appropriate time because enough is enough.
“Our youth are already involved; they used their motorcycles to supply them with weapons and ammunition in the bush.
“The women of these bandits brought ammunition from the far north and gave our youth peanuts to convey the ammunition to their men in the bush of Okun land, which they used to terrorise our people.
“Imagine, Okun women becoming girl friends to bandits. Again our Okun people are becoming too lazy to the extent that it is the Fulanis who farm okro, pepper, and maize for us and this is an aberration.
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“I want to emphasise that the Kogi State Government is not sleeping over the insurgents in Okun land.
“We have arrested and killed many of their leaders, and we will continue to go after bandits who do not allow us to sleep or go to farms.
“We will make our communities safe, make the state safe for our farmers to go to farm. We will continue to follow the bandits until we finish killing all of them so that our people can sleep with their two eyes closed,” he said.
He noted that the state government has invested heavily in agriculture in providing inputs to farmers, saying the time has come for the Okun people to take their destiny into their hands so that nobody can come from outside to violate Okun rules and begin to cause sleepless nights in the land.
“I am appealing to you to leverage the available potentials in agriculture to improve the standard of living of our people.
“This is the area I want our youth to dissipate their energy to harness in order to improve their standard of living,” he stated.
