Former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole has described the source of banditry and insecurity in Nigeria.

Banditry and general instability in Nigeria, according to Oshiomhole, are primarily caused by factory closures and worker retrenchment.

He said this yesterday in Abuja at the 2nd Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, National Peace and Security Summit.

Non-payment of the N30,000 new minimum wage signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, according to the former APC National Chairman, is also to blame for the country’s lack of stability.

He said: ‘’Who are the bandits? I suspect that those 35,000 workers whose factories have been closed in Kaduna city, those whose livelihood have been taken away, what are they doing?

“What will their children and grandchildren be doing now? It’s common sense to know that an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

“I suspect that those Nigerians that we abandoned and not providing for them, as you can call them almajiris or beggars have all grown up.

“When you talk about unemployment, the biggest problem is having the biggest population of unemployable.

“When they deny workers such payment, can there be peace? I submit with the International Labour Organisation, ILO, that the condition for national peace and security does not necessarily need much bullet but decent jobs.

‘’But when you are at an environment where jobs are being killed, jobs that do not exist cannot even be decent.”

Banditry, abduction, and general insecurity are all on the rise in Nigeria right now.

In the North, bandits are kidnapping and killing scholars, while in the Southeast, unidentified armed men are targeting security forces and government agencies.

In some counties, such as Benue, Taraba, and parts of the Southeast, killer herdsmen are wreaking havoc.