By Onuminya Innocent In Sokoto

Bandits in the early hours of Tuesday invaded Adiya farm located behind Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar III International Airport, Sokoto , carting away no fewer than 200 cows and 180 rams. The farm which is 10 kilometres from Sokoto metropolis is owned by a business mogul Dr Abdullahi Adiya.

Addressing newsmen and security agencies at the site, Dr Adiya said he left the farm around 12:30am but received a destress call by one of his staff that armed bandits invaded the farm early hours of today and went away with scores of animals.

He lamented that what he laboured for many years had been taken away by criminals.He noted that some people had paid for some rams and cows in preparation for the forth coming Sallah celebration.

He further disclosed that the farm had about 100 workers, stressing that the criminals meant to cripple his business and take some people off job .

He maintained that if the farm which is just 10kilometres away from the town can be invaded by armed bandits without any challenge from security agencies is worrisome.“As you can see here is just 10km from Sokoto metropolis, the next village from here is the village of Chief of Army  Staff Lt General, Farouk Yahaya, and soldiers are stationed in the village but the bandits went away with the animals unchallenged”, he lamented.

He pleaded with President Muhammadu Buhari to fix security challenges bedeviling the Northwest before leaving office in 2023.

“As a businessman, I’m begging Mr  President who is from this zone to look into security challenges facing the area before leaving office,” he stated.He stated that there was no way business could thrive in an atmosphere of insecurity, saying the trend is scaring away investors.

He said the way things were going on in the region and the country as whole, it would push the people to resort to self help. He backed the call on residents to carry arms against terrorists to defend themselves.He called on both state and federal government to come to his aid as some of the funds used in the were loans taken from commercial banks. Efforts by THISDAY to reach Police Public Relations Officer, Sokoto State Command,  DSP Sanusi Abubakar, on phone were unsuccessful