Senate asks Nigerian military to end Lakurawa terror group’s activities

The Senate on Wednesday urged the Nigerian Army to end the activities of the Lakurawa terror group in Kebbi and Sokoto states in the North-west region.

The upper chamber also demanded that relief materials be distributed to survivors of the attacks carried out by the terror group to cushion their sufferings.

The resolutions were a sequel to a motion co-sponsored by the three senators from Kebbi State during the plenary.

The senators are Abdullahi Yahaya (PDP, Kebbi North), Adamu Ailero (PDP, Kebbi Central) and Garba Maidoki (PDP, Kebbi South).

The Nigerian military recently described the group as relatively new but a PREMIUM TIMES report indicated that the group has been active for some years.

The Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) later admitted that the Lakurawa group was not new and assured that the military would neutralise it

The motion

Mr Yahaya, who presented the motion on behalf of his colleagues, lamented the incessant attacks carried out by the terror group in his state.

He stressed the need to take appropriate and immediate measures before the group spreads to other parts of the country.

The senator said members of the group carried out an attack on 8 November in a community in Kebbi State, killing over 20 people and several livestock worth millions of naira.

Mr Ailero, on his part, requested that the senators observe a one-minute silence in honour of those who lost their lives in the attack.

He also encouraged the Senate to advise the military to maintain its presence and vigilance in the affected communities to halt Lakurawa’s activities from spreading across the region.

Contributions

The majority of the senators supported the motion.

The Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin, sympathised with victims of the attacks in Kebbi and Sokoto states. He called on the military to ensure that the group’s activities are curbed.

“I stand in solidarity with the people of Kebbi State because this is a new dimension to the problem of insecurity in that area. It is sad that while our security agencies are working very hard to deal with the current situation that we have or the situation that was there before, these people came into Kebbi State.

“When the security agents are working very hard, day in and day out, sacrificing their lives to deal with the situation that was hitherto occurring in that state, now, a new dimension has come to exacerbate the problem of insecurity.

“This was how Boko Haram started. Those guys came from other parts of the world – different parts of the West Africa sub-region into Borno State. And the appropriate action was not taken at the right time. And so they got emboldened, and the rest is now history. So, the people of Borno State and the entire northern part of this country were badly affected.

“Now, we need to urge our security agencies to double their efforts. We know they are doing very well. They are putting their lives on the line, fighting for our safety, safeguarding us, and giving us security so we can sleep with our two eyes closed every night. So, we thank them. We appreciate what they are doing.

“But this is a new challenge. It’s a new challenge. We urge them to do more. Already, they are doing very well. It’s a new dimension to the entire scenario we have in the state of Kebbi,” the deputy senate president said.

Aminu Tambuwal, former governor of Sokoto State, said the group emerged in the state when he was in office but he fought them with the help of the military.

“When I was on the saddle as the governor of Sokoto State, to the glory of God Almighty, we had an emergence of this group possibly and I think it was in Sokoto State for the first time in 2018. And we had to mobilise in collaboration with the federal government to dislodge them and disperse most of them.

“It was a very well-carried-out operation by the security personnel. I was, therefore, surprised when I read in the press, some security officials saying that this was the first time that we had this bandit group in Nigeria. That is not correct,” he said.

Mr Tambuwal, the senator representing Sokoto South Senatorial District, urged the government to immediately address the tactics employed by the group to carry out terrorism activities.

“It is too serious for us to take lightly because these people are well-armed with sophisticated weapons, and I believe they even have some international connections. Therefore, there is a need for the government of Nigeria to take this matter very seriously. Otherwise, it may snowball as did the banditry from Zamfara and virtually every part of Nigeria,” he said.

In his remarks, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, warned that if the group is not immediately stopped, there is a high probability that it will migrate to other parts of the country to unleash terror.

“This is the way it starts and if it is not nipped in the bud, it will spread terror across many parts of this country.

“While we commend the military, we want the military to continue to maintain their presence in those regions in order to forestall further terror groups coming into the country,” Mr Akpabio said.

The senate president thereafter directed the senators to observe a one-minute silence in honour of those who lost their lives in the attacks.