Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara state on Thursday revealed that over 4000 lives have been wasted by armed bandits, saying that over 9000 people have been injured while thousands of houses and farmlands have equally been destroyed since the armed bandits started their dastard activities in the state.
The governor made this revelation when he hosted a two-day federal and states security administrators (FSSAM) meeting in Gusau, the state capital, pointing out that the insecurity situation in the state has become worrisome and of public concern.
Governor Yari who spoke through the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Abdullahi Shinkafi noted that statistics available to him indicated that there are over 8000 women who have been turned to widows and sixteen thousand orphans caused by the deadly activities of the gunmen in the state.
According to him, it all started as a drama and later developed into unexpected glare and sights, adding that there are over 10000 armed bandits operating in the state using more sophisticated weapons in their nefarious operations.
” We are being surrounded by thick forests in the state which the armed bandits and notorious kidnappers use as their hideouts, ” he lamented.
Governor Yari noted that there are highly placed individuals behind the unleashing of terror attacks in the state, urging the security operatives to endeavour to fish out the perpetrators of all these unholy activities and the sponsors of the armed bandits and notorious kidnappers in the state.
“All these bloodthirsty young men have since destroyed their consciences and are living without conscience,” governor Yari stressed.
However, the governor regretted that there were only twenty-five police outposts in the state with over two hundred and fifty communities, pointing out that the armed bandits and kidnappers have the freedom and opportunity to enter any community and villages they wish because there are not enough security operatives.
He said that there were about three-hundred soldiers in the state, stressing that it was when the insecurity situation began to ravage the state that the federal government increased the number of soldiers to four thousand.
