Bandit and insurgent attacks across Northern Nigeria are no longer occurring on a daily or weekly basis as witnessed in the past, Adamawa State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Leader Leneke, has said.
Leneke made the assertion on Tuesday while appearing on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102.5 FM, Ilese Ijebu, Ogun State, where he assessed the performance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration in the North, particularly in security, agriculture and infrastructure.
The commissioner, however, acknowledged that isolated security incidents still occur, citing a recent attack along the Adamawa-Borno border in which several people were reportedly killed.
He described the incident as painful, saying the state had believed it had moved beyond such attacks.
“About yesterday, we had some little security breach in Adamawa along the borderlines of one of our local government areas with Borno State. The insurgents encroached into some parts of some of our communities and quite a number of people lost their lives, unfortunately,” Leneke said.
“It is a very sad and painful situation because we thought for a while we had gone past this phase, this stage, because we’ve not been experiencing that.”
Despite the incident, Leneke maintained that the broader security situation across the North had improved considerably compared with the period before the Tinubu administration.
According to him, the present administration inherited a severe security crisis involving kidnappers, insurgents, bandits, unknown gunmen and persistent farmers-herders clashes.
“In terms of security, before the coming of the present administration, you must accept and understand the present administration did not create the current security challenge and trouble that we face currently as a nation and particularly, Northern Nigeria. In fact, if we’re going to be truthful, they met a very dire situation on ground,” he said.
The commissioner said the insurgency, which was previously concentrated around Borno, Yobe and parts of Adamawa, had been substantially degraded under the current security architecture.
“When security problems started, it was at a point localised along the northeastern geopolitical region of the country, Bauchi, Yobe, Adamawa, but the epicentre used to be Borno and Yobe and the northern little part of Adamawa State.
“But today, if you’re fair to this government, you can honestly say the insurgency has been largely degraded,” he said.
Leneke stressed that occasional attacks should not obscure what he described as a significant reduction in the frequency of violence.
“There might be isolated cases here and there, just like the one I mentioned, but they are no longer a daily occurrence. They are no longer a weekly occurrence, not even a monthly occurrence as the case may be.”
He also claimed that the farmers-herders crisis, which had contributed to violence and displacement across parts of the North, had been largely brought under control.
“The farmers-herders situational crisis that we’ve also experienced across the entire northern region is almost a thing of the past and I can broadly say 85 to 90 per cent of this crisis have been taken care of.
“Farmers can now go to farm, herders can now also rear their animals without the daily clashes that take place between them,” he said.
On banditry in the North-West, the commissioner said the challenge had also been substantially degraded, although he acknowledged that it had not been completely eliminated.
“I’m not saying it has been totally resolved and taken care of but if we must be honest, this administration and its security architecture have done a very commendable and remarkable job in tackling the situation and degrading it to its PRS minimum for now.”
Leneke said the improvement was also evident in the ability of residents to travel on roads that were previously considered dangerous because of frequent attacks.
“There has been drastic improvement. There’s been tremendous improvement and credit must be given to this administration in that regard,” he said.
The commissioner linked the security gains to increased federal presence and infrastructure development across the region, citing ongoing road projects and other major infrastructure initiatives.
He mentioned projects including the Badagry-Sokoto corridor, Abuja-Kaduna and Abuja-Kano roads, as well as the construction of what he described as superhighways across the North.
Leneke further disclosed that the Federal Government had approved the establishment of about five Nigerian Army battalions across Adamawa State to strengthen security in strategic locations.
“In Adamawa State alone, the President has given the approval for the establishment of about five battalions of the Nigerian Army across the state, in Ganye, Luman, Madagali, Mubi, all across Adamawa State,” he disclosed.
While defending the security record of the Tinubu administration, the commissioner acknowledged that recent attacks showed that the threat had not completely disappeared.
He said the Adamawa-Borno border incident remained a reminder that security agencies must sustain vigilance despite the improvements recorded.
Leneke maintained that although the North was not completely free from insecurity, the frequency and intensity of attacks had declined significantly, arguing that the region had moved away from the period when bandit and insurgent attacks were considered routine.
