Banditry: Katsina Group Urges Govt To Arm Communities, Encourage Local Self-defence Initiatives

“As a result, many local government chairmen and district heads cannot even live in their homes, as the bandits have overpowered them.

“We are making efforts to bring our people together to find solutions because we want this shedding of blood, raping of innocent women, killings, and loss of income to stop,” he said.

He also lamented over poor communication between political leaders and citizens on ongoing countermeasures, warning that any dialogue with bandits must take into account the suffering of victims to prevent retaliatory violence.

Chairman of Safana Local Government Area, Abdullahi Sani Safana, said his community now enjoy relative peace following dialogue facilitated by community and religious leaders.

He, however, expressed concern that neighbouring local governments have not adopted similar measure, thereby  undermining the progress made, with the bandits launching attacks on those areas and retreating to Safana for safety.

“The dialogue was initiated after interventions from community and religious leaders, acting on the advice of Fulani elders who acknowledged that most of the bandits are indigenes of the state and would listen to them.

“For the past four weeks, there has been no attack in Safana. The bandits even asked whether the dialogue would extend to Kurfi, Dutsinma, and Charanchi local governments. When I said no, they requested that I deliver their message, saying they also want peace to reign in those places and called for time to speak with the chairmen,” he said.

On his part, the Chairman of Kurfi Local Government, Babangida Abdullahi, said there was need to sensitise communities to stop  providing intelligence and logistics to bandits.

“The fuel, food, and other logistics they use are purchased by ordinary citizens. In one case we are handling, the son of a victim provided information to the bandits about his father’s whereabouts.

“They collected N5 million in ransom and still killed the man. The boy was given just N50,000 from the ransom. This shows how deeply communities are involved in sustaining banditry in the state,” Abdullahi said.

Prof. Usman Yusuf Bugaje described the attendance of stakeholders at the meeting as encouraging, noting that their silence in the past had failed to attract government action.

He stressed that the meeting was apolitical, and insisted that the crimes committed in Katsina were worse than those in Benue State, but has not attracted government and media attention.

“Now that we are talking, it is a huge progress. We have not been speaking about the atrocities in our state, and that is why the government has not responded.

“We are not known for being lazy or cowardly. But today, we, the elites, are now IDPs in Abuja, unable to return to our villages, which are dying along with the businesses there,” he said.

Prof. Bugaje warned that if urgent action is not taken, the insecurity could spread into larger towns across the state.

“The war on banditry can never be won on the battlefield alone. There must be clarity on when to dialogue and when to fight. Stakeholders—especially traditional leaders and community leaders—must be involved. At present, the security committee involves only the governor and military personnel who do not even understand the terrain,” he added.

Another stakeholder, Munir Ahmad, said the root cause of banditry is the neglect of local communities, which has created severe economic hardship for young people.

“We need to engage them to see the benefit of dialogue and the truce we seek. Let us rebuild the broken links in the community because if we continue to approach this violence without alternatives, we will keep repeating the same thing without results,” he said.

Similarly, Bashir Nadabo lamented the release of arrested kidnappers after being handed over by local vigilantes. He commended vigilantes in Bakori for reducing attacks through community donations that were used to strengthen their capacity.

“We need to arm our people to fight back. We all know the bandits are indigenes, but when security personnel are poorly equipped and those deployed lack knowledge of the terrain, then we must empower vigilantes who understand the psyche of these criminals,” Nadabo said.