Sokoto farmers beg FG to stamp out Lakurawa terrorist group

Farmers under the auspices of “All Farmers Association” of Nigeria, AFAN, Sokoto State Chapter, Sunday, begged the Federal Government to intensify efforts to flush out the new deadly terrorist group, Lakurawa from the State. Sokoto State AFAN Chairman, Jamilu Mohammed, while commending the Nigerian military for swiftly moving in to ensure the group is weeded out, said the tempo should be sustained to enable farmers return to their farms this dry season. Mohammed said: “The Sokoto state government has launched a community guard, which is helping in tackling those situations. But Lakurawa people are coming with sophisticated weapons and are a bit more organized than the bandits. So we believe it is the effort of the military that will flush them away.”
However, he said the military are already on ground, “But to be fair to the government, the military have already commenced operations to flush them. It is a threat to farmers that is why we are talking now but the security forces have responded. They have already launched operations against them.” Meanwhile, according to him, the people killed so far by the terror group were farmers. “All those people that they (Lakurawa) killed are our members. There is not a single person that was affected that is not our member”, he added. In his call to the government about the situation of insecurity in the State as it affects food production, he said, “We need a permanent solution to the insecurity challenges farmers and the people of Sokoto State are facing. Ad-hoc or temporary solutions will not do any good to us. We need a permanent solution. They (Lakurawa) have to be flushed squarely and promptly so that we can go back to our routine farming activities.”
On the impact of the devastating 2024 flood on farms in Sokoto State and what interventions farmers are receiving to ameliorate their plight, the Sokoto AFAN boss said, “The flood, of course, has affected our farmers. The impact is there, and it has brought about food inflation for the time being, depending on when the farmers harvested this dry season, and that is part of the reason why the price of food is not going down despite the fact that we are in the on-season. They (the government) are working on it. So the Sokoto state government has formed a committee that will take inventory of what is happening, and even the federal government, through NEMA, is working on it.”