Nigeria’s Defence Chief Basic Chris Musa mentioned yesterday that the army was being fed dangerous intelligence by informants, hampering the battle against armed kidnapping gangs who proceed to abduct college students and residents within the north of the nation.
The army introduced on Sunday that it had rescued 137 college students kidnapped by gunmen earlier this month in northwestern Kaduna state. The varsity kids arrived in Kaduna yesterday.
Musa advised Reuters that the army was too stretched and sometimes relied on informants to pursue the armed gangs, identified domestically as bandits, usually with little success.
“They (informants) make the troops go elsewhere and after they get there, they meet nothing and permit the bandits to commit acts of criminality,” mentioned Musa.
Musa mentioned there had been no confrontation with gunmen through the rescue of the Kaduna college students. However, he wouldn’t say how the scholars have been freed or if any of the gunmen have been taken into custody.
There have been at the very least 68 mass abductions within the first quarter of 2024 principally in northern Nigeria, in line with threat consultancy SBM Intelligence.
Musa mentioned as soon as bandits retreat to Nigeria’s huge forests, it turns troublesome to pursue them. That’s as a result of gunmen rapidly trekking via the forest, usually for days with their victims.
“As soon as they go in there, getting them out is troublesome. The aircrafts can not see them fairly simply,” he mentioned, including that Nigeria’s huge and loosely patrolled northern border made the scenario worse.
The kidnappings have prompted some state governments to recruit what they name group guards.
“Now, state governments on their very own are going to choose individuals who haven’t any coaching and deploy and we’re discouraging them from doing that,” he mentioned.
