Niger State Governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, on Monday said over 50 villages in five local government areas of the state had been deserted by its residents owing to bandit attacks.

Bello said this in Minna when he declared open a two-day workshop on strategies for enhancing internally generated revenue of local government councils.

“As we speak we have not less than 50 villages deserted across 5 local governments now; where do we get the resources to take care of them if 80% of our resources go to those that do not add value to the system?”

Bello also said Boko Haram terrorists had hoisted their flag at Kaure village in Shiroro Local Government Area of the state.

He said this in Minna when he visited the IDPs Camp at the IBB Primary School near the Palace of Emir of Minna.

He said: “I’m confirming that there are Boko Haram elements around Kaure in Shiroro local government of Niger state. They’ve taken over the territory, they’ve installed their flags. I’m confirming to you now that they’ve taken over the wives of people by force and attached to Boko Haram members.”

He said Boko Haram terrorists were trying to make Kaure their home and headquarters like they did to Sambisa forest, adding that while Sambisa forest is several kilometers away from Abuja, Kaure is only two hours’ drive to the nation’s capital.

“I’ve been engaging the federal government and unfortunately it has gotten to this stage and if care is not taken even Abuja is not safe. We’ve been saying this for long and all efforts have been in vain,” he said as reported by Daily Trust.

It was learned that as of Monday, there were 1447 children, 119 pregnant women and 447 other women at the camp.