Bandits continued their nefarious activities in Niger State Thursday as they hit a community in Sarkin pawa, killing one person and injured several others.
It is the latest in the unending spates of attack on the North Central state.
However, the state government has assured that despite the hoisting of its flag by Boko Haram insurgents in the state, both the Federal and the state governments are on top of the situation and will do everything to flush them out of the state.
The government also urged the people to disregard the ongoing viral video of heavily armed gunmen moving into part of the state, saying that the purported video is that of a terrorist group in Chad but not anywhere in Nigeria.
The state commissioner for information and strategy Mallam Mohammed Sani Idris in a statement in Minna on Thursday said “our attention has been drawn to a viral video of heavily armed gunmen said to be at the entrance of a town purported to be Niger state territory, Nigeria, but discovered to be in far away from Chad.
“While we hasten to state categorically that the information is false as such thing did not happen anywhere in the state, we equally desire to warn scaremongers to leave Niger state and ply their trade elsewhere”.
The commissioner observed that some people are “Using the internet for mischief and to
peddle falsehood and spread fear, have survived long enough and shall no longer be tolerated by the State Government”,
He, therefore, warned that any person caught sharing
“fake video of whatever nature, either relating to insecurity or any other issue/matter with a view to driving Niger state and its residents into panic shall be arrested and made to face the full wrath of the Law”.
“The Niger State Government wishes to inform the public that even as there are elements of Boko Haram at the fringes of an area of the state, Federal and State Government are working assiduously to flush out the terrorists from these areas, while our security agents are working bravely and professionally to restore stability to the troubled part within the shortest possible time”, he added.
The commissioner further stated that
“we, therefore, implore the public to go about their businesses peacefully and to stop seeking and relishing falsehood such as are being peddled by scaremongers – total falsities intended to frustrate the efforts of our security agents, or upset the stability of our communities, the process of which can do serious harm to fellow residents”.
