Charcoal business now a death sentence in kwara state

Charcoal business now a death sentence in kwara state

By: Bodunrin Kayode

For residents of northern and southern senatorial zones in kwara state, charcoal production which is an economic pastime of some local council residents is now a security challenge.

Those whose livelihood have been tied to the activity now avoid the savannah like a plague especially with the absence of forest guards or civil defenders to watch over them while they eke their livelihoods.

Most of them have now resigned to fate as even firewood still used by local bakers to bake bread is now a luxury not to talk about house wives who rely on it to cook.

Recently, a single mother of four from Igbaja was kidnapped by bandits while she went in to the savannah to source for charcoal, which she sells for a living.

Her family and other sympathisers had responded to the ransom demands by the bandits by sourcing and taking five million out of the initial 100 million naira demanded by her captors in the bush.

In spite of that speedy payment they made, the criminals had, refused to release her asking instead for more money to match up with their initial demands.

However while the criminals were haggling with her family for more chunk of the expected ransom, she escaped from their grip and is back at her home in Igbaja.

Kwara state in north central Nigeria has been badly infested by criminal bandits who have been unleashing sorrow, tears and blood on the people.

The latest group to join the previous hit, kill and run group is the lakurawa which has alliances with groups in the sahelian states between the Maghreb north African region down to West African countries.

Sadly, the nation’s security architecture seem to lack the intelligence and sophistication using modern equipment to stop these elements even after they have written memos to certain communities that they are coming.

They actually came and operated in Kayama council area recently for long hours without even the Nigerian police force present in such remote places not to talk about the kwara command seeing every stick and stone inside its territory in real time through buyable technology.

Nigeria needs at least a minimum of two million federal, state and local council police personnel policing its residents all over the country if we must heave a sigh of relief in the area of internal security.

The implementation of the recently approved state police by the sub nationals is the first step towards securing individual states since the federal police are very well over stretched having shown a clear lack of capacity to police almost 250 million people in the country.

Sadly, many states in the South west of Nigeria already have uniformed Amotekun personnel doing intelligence and community policing of their states but they lack the real technology which would give them edge in seeing what occurs through their numerous rain forests which is a far different ball game from what kwara is dealing with.

The Nigerian military however is the worse hit in terms of boots on the ground, air or on sea because recruitment has never achieved the desires of the people within the last four decades yet hundreds retire yearly after 35 years of service.

Charcoal business now a death sentence in kwara state