Herdsmen are killing my people – Sen. Umaru

Senator David Umaru, representing Niger-east senatorial district, has expressed concern over the attack by herdsmen in some parts of the state.

He stated this in Minna during the Christmas holiday, he stressed that it was about time the state government took decisive action to stop the killings by the attackers on some communities in the state.

It was reported that some parts of his constituency especially around Allawa forest in Shiroro local government area of the state have been under serious attack in the past few months and police has since mobilized to mitigate the situation.

Senator David Umaru however called on the Niger state government to strengthen the provision of security against what he called “mass killings” by the armed attackers.

Umaru stated that his constituency has been under consistent invasion by the herders operating with impunity saying “it is the primary responsibility of the state governor as the chief security officer of the state to secure the lives and property of the people but my people have been abandoned by the government in the hands of the attackers who invade the communities at will, killing and rustling their cattle, in cases they kidnapped women and girls”.“Many of my people have fled to the cities in fear of possible attacks but the problem is that there is no provision for them in the cities resulting in hardship and sufferings” he declared

Accordingly, “the people feel abandoned by the government and from the complains reaching me, I think the government needs to do more than playing the ostrich, it’s time for it to get its head out of the sand and face the reality of the security challenges in the state. Government should wake up to its responsibility to the people. This is its primary responsibility and it can deploy everything to solve the problem because it would amount to failing the people if security of lives and property is not attended to”.

He lamented that the people have lost count of the number of death as each attack always left at least five people dead and several others injured.

“I have been following the development but I’m very handicap in the sense that the issue of security is in the hand of the state government. This development has greatly impoverished the people because their cattle and farm produce are being stolen by these Herdsmen” he further stated.