Government vows to deal with youth aiding, abetting banditry in Kogi, says Omadara

…urges the Okun people to leverage on available potentials in agriculture to improve standard of living

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, the State Security Adviser to the Kogi State Government, stated this at the palace of Elegbe of Egbe while giving a progress report and the effort of the state government on the fight against insecurity in Kogi West on Monday.

He said, “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 nine or seven Okun youth are already in his black book for being on the payroll of the bandits, assuring that since some of the youth have connections with bandits, the government will not hesitate to treat them like bandits.

He said, “Regrettable, 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 gave them vital information.

“There are people in Yagba West who paid the bandits money so that they wouldn’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 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 that farm okro, pepper, and maize for us and this is an aberration.

“I want to emphasise that the Ogi 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”.

Omadara equally 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 abound in agriculture to improve the standard of living of our people. These are areas I want our youth to dissipate their energy to harness in order to improve their standard of living,” he stated.