Residents in Niger Communities desert after receving bandits’ letters demanding N150 million each or risk attacks

Tension has rocked some communities in Agwara and Borgu Local Government Councils in Niger State, as a yet-to-be identified faction of bandits wrote letters demanding for the sum of N150 million or risked being attacked.

The affected communities were given till the end of March to produce the fund, failure which they would storm without prior notice.
CAPITAL POST gathered that each community is to avail the sum of N150 million each within the next two weeks.

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The letter according to one of the community leader in Pampiri in Agwara Local government who pleaded not to be named in press disclosed that the letter was dated the 16th of March, 2026, and addressed to three District heads of their communities informing them that they should either make the money available before or 30th of March, 2026 or they should be ready to face the deadly invasion of the communities.

CAPITAL POST reliably gathered that as a result of the strong worded state of the letter and the past experience of the activities of armed bandits that have hitherto wrecked unprecedented havoc on them previously, “we have no any option than to abandon our homes before they launch their attack on us”.

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Speaking in an exclusive interview in Minna Sunday, a resident of Agwara Local Government area in Niger State, Comrade Jibrin Danlami Kabir, stated that he has to relocate his family to another community outside his own community for the safety.

Although, he declined to mention the area he relocated his family to for their safety, “but I have relocated them to another community for the fear of the attack as contained in the letter”. 

He disclosed that even before the letter, the entire communities have been living in perpetual fear and tension in the area, adding that, “we have been subjected to unprecedented attack by the armed bandits in the last four months without security forces safeguarding us and our people.

“On several occasions we have heard that the government will deploy security men to patrol our communities, but we have not seen any.

“Our vigilante men that used to assist in safeguarding the communities have been killed by these gun men. These people are well equipped and are well prepared to carry out their attack anytime.

“With the kind of weapons they wielded about, nobody could confront them. So the issue of the deployment of security forces to our communities does not even arise in the first place.

“The best option left for us is to abandon our home for our own safety. We cannot wait for the deployment as promised by the government” he stated.

Also, it was reliably gathered that  Babbana, a boarder community in Borgu Local Government in Niger State, penultimate Thursday, suffered a deadly attack  as some gangs of daredevil gun men launched a deadly assault on men of the Nigerian Immigration Service stationed in the border killing three of the officers of the service.

After the killing, it was learnt that gunmen carted away seven of the service rifle of the immigration officers.

Agwara and Borgu Local Government have been placed under heavy siege of the unwholesome activities of armed bandits in the last seven months without any  succour from the authority.

CAPITAL POST recalled that, early September, 2025, some heavily armed gunmen invaded St. Michael Catholic Schools and abducted  over 150 students and seven of teachers from Pampiri in Agwara.

It took the intervention of the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) to rescue them even as it was gathered that some undisclosed amount was paid as ransom before their release.

The Police public Relation officer (PPRO) Niger State Police Command, Wasiu Abiodun SP could not be reached for his comment as several calls to his phone were not responded to.

However, a source within the tactical squad of the command, who neither confirmed nor denied the report, said that “we heard that some group of gun men wrote letters to some communities in Borgu and Agwara. We are yet to get the details of the information for us to know the next action to be taken”.

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