Following the attack on their communities by Fulani herdsmen, local government authorities in Okun area of Kogi State have concluded plans to organise a joint security force for the patrol of the communities to ensure the security of lives and properties of their people.

The chairman of Mopamuro Local Government area of Kogi State, Funso Daniyan, told Nigerian Tribune on Monday that the affected local government areas were already working on how to make their communities safe.

He said members of the local vigilante had already been deployed to various wards in the local government to beef up security and ensure safety of the people.

The affected local government areas are Mopamuro, Yagba West and Yagba East.

He said, “The chairmen of the three contagious local government areas, Mopamuro, Yagba East and Yagba West are talking and we are trying to put up a metric that will cover the three local government areas but we can put the details in public domain.”

According to him, the move became necessary because of the latest attacks on Aiyede and Amuro by Fulani herdsmen, who allegedly killed a former councillor and a nursing mother.

Daniyan said the local vigilante in the local government areas had also been reinforced to ensure that the people were adequately protected.

The local government boss also said he had met with traditional rulers in the area to sensitise them on the need to talk to their subjects to support the moves being made to ensure security of lives.

He said, “In the last few weeks we have had an upsurge in the incidences of attack by Fulani herdsmen coming into the local government, maiming and killing. This is a situation that is a bit difficult to control because these people are wanderers, the one that are creating havoc are not the traditional herdsmen that herd cattle in  the local government, they come from outside.

“The ones that killed the former councillor, are even suspected to be displaced terrorists from outside because in the area where they shot the man there was no sign of cow hues to show that they are herding cattle, but when you see their footprints you will know they are a group of people.

“But so far, we cant discuss the issue of security on the pages of newspapers, I can assure that certain things are being put in place. We are beefing up logistic support to the police division in our area, we are trying to provide mobility and better means of communication.

“We are now deploying the local vigilante into the wards and we have advised the citizens to remain indoors between 11 pm and 6 am. The police have been encouraged to beef up patrol within the areas where the attacks are happening because these areas are isolated settlements, so we have encouraged them to beef up security especially where these things happen.

“But in conjunction with the state, we are also putting in place security measures that cannot be made public, we are trying to get on top of the situation, we have urged the youths not to retaliate because we don’t want it to be like a reprisal attack, we want it to go through normal channel of security operatives doing their job, the DSS, the police, the civil defence are all on the alert and playing their roles.

I am happy to say that the three arms of security are working in unity, we have the same purpose which is to curtail the problem, we will keep urging the citizen to provide tangible and credible  intelligence to the security agencies so that it can be preemptive and not reacting to what has happened, we have also met with the traditional ruler to sensitise their people on the need to back the security agencies.