Nigeria’s Minister of Defence, Christopher Musa, has called on Nigerians to be more vigilant and expose suspicious activities linked to bandits, warning that communities often ignore unusual transactions that help sustain criminal groups.
In a video shared by Channels Television, Musa said residents have a collective responsibility to identify and report activities that may be aiding bandits and other criminal elements operating from forests across the country.
“They’ll come into your market. Somebody who’s making a profit of 2,000 naira daily suddenly starts making 25,000 naira. He’s not asking any questions. People come from the forest, buy 200 loaves of bread and take them into the forest. The next day, they come and buy crates of mirrors and take them into the forest. Nobody is talking. We have a responsibility to expose any act of evil wherever we see it.”
Musa stressed that defeating insecurity requires cooperation between security agencies and members of the public, noting that criminals rely on support networks and supplies from nearby communities to sustain their operations and evade security forces.
