Royal Family Member Blames Government “Failure” for Niger State Market Massacre

A prominent member of the Borgu Royal Family has issued a sharp condemnation of government inaction, attributing last week’s deadly attack on Kasuwan Daji market to a “systematic failure” by both federal and state authorities.

Murtala Dantoro, speaking on ARISE News, stated that the absence of security forces and the idle state of the Kainji Lake National Park have created a haven for bandits in the vast Borgu Local Government Area.

“The size of Borgu Local Government is the Borgu Kingdom itself… and here we are, we have the Kainji Lake National Park, which has been idle for a very long time,” Dantoro said. He described the area as a “soft” target due to the complete lack of security presence across large stretches of territory.

The attack on January 3 saw armed men burn the market in Demo village, kill 30 people, and abduct an unspecified number. Dantoro argued this was a predictable tragedy, citing a pattern of “banditry migration,” where criminals relocate to areas with weak security.

“They’ve observed that… nobody comes around to rescue these innocent people. So we keep going and doing whatever we want to do,” he stated, criticizing what he called reactive, rather than proactive, security measures.

He directly linked the latest violence to the earlier mass kidnapping of over 300 students and teachers from a school in Papiri in November 2025, noting the area remained exposed despite that incident.

“What makes it vulnerable is that insecurity will always thrive where a place becomes isolated. Not much attention was paid,” Dantoro asserted. “So that’s, unfortunately, a systematic failure. Yes, systematic failure. Both at the federal and the state level.”

The royal’s comments underscore growing frustration in the region, highlighting the challenges of securing remote, forested border areas and the devastating human cost of perceived government neglect.