Agaju Madugba, Katsina
The Federal government is set to launch a new civil defence outfit called ‘Agro-Rangers’ which will guard farmers and allied investments and facilities across the country.
Code-named ‘Agro Rangers,” the Minister of the Interior, Alhaji Abdulrahman Dambazzau, explained that the initiative became necessary due to the criminal activities of bandits which he regretted had tended to obstruct farmers in the course of their work.
Moreover, according to him, the new security outfit will equally check the recurrent menace of clashes between farmers and cattle herders.
Speaking on Thursday in Katsina while inspecting facilities at the National Civil Defence Academy, where the agro-rangers personnel are expected to be trained, Dambazzau said that the outfit would operate as a special unit under the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
According to him, “the ministry decided to create the new security outfit in response to the threat of armed banditry which is obstructing farming activities in parts of the country.
“The threat is capable of crippling the economy and that is why the new security outfit will protect farmlands, farmers at work, and other agricultural investments that are critical to the survival of the Nigerian economy.
“Nobody will want to invest his wealth where there is no security, so with our experience with kidnapping, with farmers and herders conflicts and armed banditry, we thought we must have this outfit so that we do not over stretch the Nigerian police and the military.”