Niger state government has on Friday described as baseless and untrue a report in some online media (not Golden News Online) that the state government has concluded plans to recruit about 4,000 youths across the 25 local government areas of the state to fight the security challenge that has bedeviled the state.
The Commissioner for Local Government, Community Development and Chieftaincy Affairs, Mallam Abdulmalik Sarkin Daji whom the purported story was credited to, in a statement in Minna on Friday said the report which is trending in some social media is nothing but fake news and imagination of the reporter.
The Commissioner who disassociated himself from the said publication which he said was the creation of the reporter, pointed out that he has not in any fora granted an interview or made any public statement to that effect, wondering where the reporter got his facts from.
Sarkin Daji who admitted that though it is a known fact that the state is faced with serious security challenges, occasioned by the activities of the armed bandits, the government has no immediate plan to engage the youths in the fight against armed bandits.
According to Sarkin Daji, “while the state government welcomes the idea of state policing to compliment the efforts of our security agencies who have remained committed to the fight against armed bandits and other criminal elements, it has not approved the engagement of youths to fight insecurity”.
While expressing government’s commitment to end activities of the armed bandits in the state, the Commissioner said that “over 2,000 local vigilantes have been mobilized across the state to compliment the efforts of the security joint TaskForce combating armed Banditry in the state”.
He therefore urged the public to disregard the said publication, stressing that the state government will continue to give the necessary support to security agencies in the state to enable them win the war against armed bandits and form of criminalities in the state.
