Declaration of bandits as terrorists: Govt unserious with our safety — Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto residents

Since January 2021 when the Federal Government finally signed a gazette declaring bandits as terrorist following an Abuja High Court ruling late last year, and incessant killings, residents of Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Niger states who have been victims, have said that the government is unserious in the fight against terror.

They said this in different interviews following the recent killings in Zamfara, Katsina and the report credited to the Niger State Governor last week Tuesday that bandits killed over 300, abducted 200 in over 50 attacks in the state in the first two weeks of January.

Also, the near absence of government and the rate at which they and other communities come under attacks have made them continue to live in fear. A resident of Bagega, Balan Kassu, made this known.

He said that the bandits who have been declared terrorists by an Abuja High Court, held sway as a result of the tentative manner in which government is dealing with them.

“Government’s reluctance in dealing with them has emboldened them to become ruthless and make the place ungovernable,” he said in Hausa Language. In Dansadau district and the surrounding villages, those who fled the community to remote places for safety said bandits are not only fully in charge now, they tell them what to do.

“We work for them wherever they direct us, be it on farms or elsewhere. We farm at their pleasure and for their consumption.” Malam Baura of Lingyado Village said they cannot face the bandits with locally made weapons because they always carried AK47, AK49, and even GRPG rifles with them. That was the reason all the attacked communities must give up and comply with their orders,” he said.

About five communities under Kurya Madaro district, Kaura Namoda Local Government Area, have deserted their homes for safety fear of attacks over their failure to pay the levies bandits imposed on them.

A resident of Balankadi village, taking refuge in Kurya Madaro district, Malam Rabi’u Abubakar, said the bandits asked them to pay the sum of N2 million before they would be allowed to continue to live in peace.

Furthermore, Abubakar narrated that the people of his village (Balankadi) were able to raise only N1.5 million and handed over the cash to the bandits. The bandits, he continued, said the money was not enough to grant them freedom from further attacks as the bandits have carried out constant invasion of the village.

“The bandits continue to rape our mothers, wives; daughters and sisters anytime they invade us. They also kill anybody that shows any sign of résistance. In addition, they break into our stores and shops for food and sometimes even set houses ablaze.

“We are not safe at all; our animals, houses, farms and rights to peaceful living have been taken over by these marauders who are now a law unto themselves,” he said.

Hence, we decided to flee to another place for safety instead of remaining there taking orders from bandits. “As I am talking to you now, not even a hen was left in our village. We have dispersed to places including Kaura Namoda, Tsafe, Bungudu Local Government Areas and some have even fled to Gusau, the state capital. “Apart from our village, residents of other neighbouring communities including Yamutsawa, Chansake, Tungar Mudi and ‘Yar Gurbi, suffered the same fate in the hands of the bandits from the camps under the leadership of Yellow, Magaji and Dan Sa’a.”

He further stated that, there has not been any presence of security operatives, the development which gave the bandits opportunity to take total control of the areas, only the bandits’ orders were in force.

In Sokoto State, the situation is no less different as residents shared their experience with one of our correspondents. Ibrahim Abdullahi Gatawa said that the situation they find themselves in was so terrible that his fellow compatriots living in the Eastern part of the state have fled their villages for the urban centres as internally Displaced Persons (IDP).

Gatawa said that bandits have killed a reasonable number of families and others declared missing. Sunday Telegraph checks revealed that Sokoto metropolis is experiencing an influx of villagers migrating to urban centres as IDP.

Some victims were accommodated and squatting with their relatives, friends while others have taken residence in public buildings, schools, hospitals and government reserved low cost estates.

Similarly, the displaced persons have resorted to begging alms in order to feed themselves and their families. Some were sighted roaming some major streets in groups and other public gathering places such as hospitals, commercial stores, restaurants among others.

The residents appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari and State Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to provide them with relief assistance as well as mobilise more security to the areas to confront the bandits to restore normalcy so that they could go back to their homes.

Senator Ibrahim Abdullahi Gobir, representing Sokoto East Senatorial district, also appealed to the Federal Government to embark on military raids of the bandits’ enclave in Isa and Sabon Birni Local Government Areas of the state with the hope of flushing them out. Gobir, who expressed sadness over the insecurity situation of the area, also urged the government to declare the suspected bandits wanted.

Also weighing in, Chairman, Dange Local Government Area, Alhaji Umar Gidan Gara, who is saddened by the continued bandits’ attacks on the communities by bandits, appealed to Governor Tambuwal to urgently ban weekly night markets in the area.

The idea is aimed at checking banditry and other criminal activities at the grassroots.

According to Gara, the measure if implemented would positively deepen the fight against banditry in the state. A resident and victim of banditry in Katsina State while advancing reasons for the unabated attacks on residents said they would continue to carry out their nefarious activities as long as security operatives do not receive orders to go after them.

A resident of Batsari town, Mallam Aliyu Muhammed, said the government is not serious in its fight against terror. Security operatives have taken advantage of this.

“A good friend of mine who is close to some security operatives stationed in Batsari on the way that leads to Rumah town and Jibia, said that a security operative told him in confidence that whenever bandits attack, even if it is close to where they are, they would not respond if they were not given directives to go after them.

“But if ordered to do so, we would flush out the bandits in just a matter of days!” To drive home his point, Aliyu Muhammed said that even last week, a group of bandits in their hundreds led by Saki Jikinki, came to a village on the outskirts of Batsari and rustled some animals in a village less than a kilometer from where the security personnel were stationed,” he added.

The only thing the military personnel did was to fire a shot to scare the bandits away. He said to the surprise of every one, just three days later, the same bandits group came back to the same village and rustled the remaining animals they were unable to rustle the first time they came.

Aliyu Muhammed said their experience was a very bitter one, because almost on a daily basis, the bandits attack one village or the other.

He therefore called on the Federal Government to be more proactive in tackling this banditry issue bedeviling the state, especially the nine front line local governments of the state which border the Rugu forest. A resident of Faskari, Faskari LGA, Alhaji Garba Musa, in a telephone chat, said hardly a day passed by without a village being attacked in the LGA.

“You see the security situation in the Faskari area is just too bad that nobody is safe. They attack at will and when they regardless of the time of the day – whether night or day. We live in perpetual fear. “I am a farmer with three farms.

“For the past three years, I have not been able to access my farms to plant anything. How can I believe that the situation has subsided? There is nothing like that,” he added.

It is the same story with Musa Jino, who resides in Jino. He said “Recently bandits in their hundreds invaded our village and neibouring villages which had severally been attacked and our animals were rustled at times without number.

“ Our village is close to the Katsina metropolis. Do you forget that just recently, they stuck at a vicinity of Katsina close to FMC (Federal Medical Centre)?where they rustled cows from the farm of one woman by name Aisha Dutsinma? “I am telling you our experience is just too bitter. We now only resorted to prayers for Almighty Allah to save us from the hands of these bandits,” he said.

However, efforts to reach the special Adviser on security to the Katsina State governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Katsina, was unsuccessful as his lines were not going

(New Telegraph)