By: Adelowo Oladipo, Minna
Some Communities in Agwara and Borgu local government areas of Niger State, have deserted their homes following a strongly worded letter forwarded to their community leaders in the area by yet-to- be identified armed bandits informing them of a renewed deadly attack on them.
The letter, according to our Correspondent in the area, revealed that the gunmen are demanding from the communities the sums of N150 million from each of the communities within the next two weeks failure which , they should be prepared for the deadly attacks on them.
The letter according to one of the community leaders in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area of the State , who pleaded for anonymity in a press interview, disclosed that the letter was dated 16th March, 2026, and addressed to three District Heads of their communities informing them that they should either make the huge sums of money available on or before 30th of March, 2026 or else they should be prepared to face the deadly invasion.
Further checks reliably gathered that as a result of the strongly worded letter and the past bitter experience of the activities of armed bandits that have hitherto wrecked unprecedented havoc on them, chorused that “we have no any option than to abandon our homes before they launch their attacks on us.”
Speaking in an exclusive interview in Minna on Sunday, a resident of Agwara Local Government area in Niger State, Comrade Jibrin Danlami Kabir, said that he has to relocate his family to another community outside his own community for his safety.
Although, he declined to mention the area he relocated his family to for their safety, saying, “ I have relocated them to another community for fear of the attack.”
He further disclosed that even before the letter, the entire communities have been living in perpetual fear and tension in the area, adding that “we have been subjected to unprecedented attacks by the armed bandits in the last four months without any security to safeguard us and our people.
“On several occasions we have heard that the government will deploy security men to patrol our communities, but we have not seen any.
“Our vigilante men that used to assist in safeguarding the communities have been killed by these dare devil gun men. These people are well equipped with sophisticated weapons and are well prepared to carry out their attacks anytime.
“With the kind of weapons they have, nobody could confront them. So the issue of deployment of security personnels to our communities does not even arise in the first place.
“The best option left for us is to abandon our homes for our own safety. We cannot wait for the deployment as promised by the government,” he stated.
It was also reliably gathered that Babanna, a border community in Borgu local government in Niger State with the neighbouring republic of Benin penultimate Thursday, suffered a deadly attack as a group of Armed Bandits launched a deadly attack on men of the Nigerian Immigration Service stationed in the border community, killing three of the officers.
After the killing, the gunmen carted away seven of their service guns.
Agwara and Borgu local government areas have been placed under heavy siege of the unwholesome activities of armed bandits in the last seven months without any succour from the authorities.
In early September, 2025, some heavily armed gunmen invaded St. Mary Catholic Schools and abducted over 150 students and seven of their teachers from Papiri in Agwara LGA of the state.
It took the intervention of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to rescue the victims , even as it was reliably gathered that some undisclosed sums of money was paid as ransom before their release.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Niger State Command, SP Wasiu Abiodun could not be reached for his comment as several calls to his phone were not responded to.
However, a source within the tactical squad of the command, who neither confirmed nor denied the report, said “we heard that some group of gun men wrote letters to some communities in Borgu and Agwara. We are yet to get the details of the information for us to know the next action to be taken.”
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