Kogi State Government has said that it is regrettable that the bandits are now operating with the indigenes of Okunland, vowed to treat as terrorists any youth in the state who indulge In aiding and abetting bandits to cause mayhem on innocent citizens.

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

According to him, intelligence information at their disposal indicated that some youth in Okunland used motorcycles to convey weapons and foodstuff to the bandits in the forest.

He alleged that about six or seven Okun youth are already in his black book for being in the payrolls of the bandits, assuring that since some of the youth have connection with bandits, government will not hesitate to treat them like bandits.

“Regrettable, the bandits are now operating with the indigenes of Okunland. The bandits have gotten our women selling soft drink, bread and other food items. The women supplied them food items and giving them vital information.

“There are people in Yagba West who paid the bandits money so that they don’t kidnapped them. We will exposed 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 ammunitions in the bush. The women of these bandits brought ammunitions from far north and give our youth peanuts to convey the ammunition to their men in the bush of Okunland which they used in terrorising our people.

“Imagine, Okun women becoming girl friends to bandits. Again our Okun people are becoming too lazy to an extent that , it is the Fulanis that farm okro, pepper, maize for us and this is an aberration.

“I want to emphasised that Kogi State Government is not sleeping over the insurgents in Okunland. We have arrested and killed many of their leaders and we will continue to go after bandits who did 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,” he said.

He noted that the state government has invested heavily on agriculture in providing inputs to farmers, saying time has come for Okun people to take their destiny into their hands so that no body can come from outside to violate Okun rules and begin to cause sleepless night in the land.

“I am appealing to you to leverage on the available potentials abound in agriculture to improve on the standard of living of our people. This is areas I want our youth to dissipate their energy to harness in order to improve their standard of living,” he stated. (Nigerian Tribune)