Insecurity: No more hideout for bandits in Northern forests — FG

…As SGF maps Northern forests to track bandits’ hideout

By Moses Adeniyi

The Federal Government in its effort to curb the spreading wings of banditry across the Federation has carried out a mapping of forest routes across northern Nigeria.

The mapping of North forests to track hideout of bandits has further reinforced assurance by President Muhammadu Buhari that last Friday’s abduction of female students from Government Girls Science Secondary School, Jangebe, will be the last to happen.

The President’s statement was relayed yesterday, through Minister of Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, who led a high-powered Federal Government delegation to sympathise with the people and government of Zamfara.

He said new measures had been developed by the Federal Government which would bring complete end to all forms of criminality in the nation.

Nigerian NewsDirect gathered that the  mapping which was supposed to be delivered by the end of

February was carried out by the office of the Surveyor General of the Federation (SGF).

The measure is one of the strategies aimed at bringing an end to banditry. This measure is aimed at gathering geospatial information with surveying and mapping strategies to assist  security agencies in intelligence gathering to track down bandit  hideouts in these forests.

It was learnt that the geospatial information would be delivered to the Nigeria Police to help comb the forest routes in operations to track down bandits in the Country.

In an interview with Nigerian NewsDirect, the Surveyor General of the Federation, Samuel Adeniran Taiwo confirming the development, disclosed that the mapping of the forest routes run from Niger republic passing through Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and then coming into Birnigwari forest.

According to him, the forests have been identified by the Nigeria Police as part of the routes of bandit and terrorists in the northern part of the Country.

“We are mapping  the  forest between Katsina, Zamfara and Kaduna State and Zamfara up to Birnigwari forest. The focus of the office is to provide geospatial information that are useful and by so doing we collaborate with the Nigeria Police and the Army. We do meetings with them.

“We also did a questionnaire to know the geospatial requirements of these institutions. The map is the model of an environment. Geospatial information are not ends in themselves but they are processes to an end, without which no meaningful thing can be achieved.

“The forests run from Niger republic passing between Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna and then coming into Binigwari forest. These have been identified by the Nigeria Police Force as part of the routes of bandit and terrorists.

“Part of the intelligent gathering is to map that corridor so that you can know the features and how to locate the place even from your office.

“The map is supposed to be finalised by the end of February and we are going to hand it over to the Police to assist them in doing their job,” he said.

He however mentioned that as an environmental subject, updates will be done on the mapping when the need arises, stating that “improvement is not static. We will still upgrade it from time to time.”