Bandits are demanding advanced payment of ransom from residents of Sadauna Local Government Area of Taraba State to avoid being abducted.
The local government chairman, Hon. Oliver Wubon, who cried out for the State and Federal Governments help, made the disclosure while speaking with journalists in Jalingo, the state capital.
He lamented that the bandits, whose operations cover the area, have recently continued to threaten the residents to make advanced payments into certain accounts or pay cash directly to them in the forest.
The council chairman, who further lamented that the situation was negatively affecting farming activities within the area, called on the state and federal governments to quickly come to their rescue to avoid impending hunger within the local government.
He said: “The banditry in Sadauna Local Government is now something else. The kidnappers are now asking for advanced payment from people or risk being kidnapped.
“They are asking people to make payment either into certain accounts or pay cash. Our people are leaving in fear. We no longer go to the farm and the possibility of impending hunger is now clear in the area if there is no immediate intervention.
“The state government in the spirit of ensuring a bumper harvest in this year’s farming season, through the Bureau for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, has sent a circular across the local governments to ensure peace between headers and farmers.
“In our coucil area, the circular has since been acted upon and the people at the local government were expecting a bumper harvest in the year cropping season before the present threat of advanced payment from kidnappers.”
