Curbing the menace of Bandits in the North West and other parts of the country, requires sterner measures and more strategic actions.
By Emeka Alex Duru
Nigeria may have to contend with the on-going banditry in the North-West and other parts of the country, unless the government adopts stricter measures to tackle the menace. Again, while Nigeria is bearing the brunt of the attacks, the criminals involved, are using the proceeds of their crime to build the economy of neighbouring countries, particularly, Niger Republic.
These were the startling disclosures of a retired diplomat, who pleaded anonymity, in an interaction with our correspondent, over the weekend. The envoy, who spent over 30 years in the Foreign Service, alleged that the bandits are making huge fortunes from their escapades in Nigeria, with which they line streets in Niamey, capital of Niger with storey-buildings and other thriving businesses.
Banditry, he said, is now an organised and competitive business in Niger. “It is a serious business in Niamey. Youths in the city have organised gangs with which they terrorise Nigerians. They make money from plunder and ransom forcefully extracted from Nigerian communities in the North-West”, he alleged.
Zamfara on receiving end
The states that are mostly affected are Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna and Niger. Just last month, nine communities in Bukkuyum Local Government Area of Zamfara State were asked by bandits to pay a compulsory tax of the sum of N24 million or be attacked.
The communities were Yangalma, Tungar Gebe, Wawan Iccen Ibrahim, Wawan Iccen Salihu, Galle, Nannarki, Ruwan Kura, Gangara and Gaude. They were taxed from N500,000 to N5m. each
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In a related development, Bandits reportedly killed at least 30 people, abducted several others, mostly women, in separate attacks Friday afternoon in the State.
The attacked communities are Nasarawar Mai Fara in Tsafe local government area, Yar Katsina in Bungudu local government area and Nasarawa village in Bakura local government area.
Reports by on line medium, PREMIUM TIMES indicated that the attack on Nasarawar Mai Fara in Tsafe local government was due to the failure of the residents to pay a N40 million levy imposed by the bandits.
The levy was reportedly imposed by Ada Aleru, a notorious banditry kingpin operating in the area and the Faskari part of Katsina State. Apart from Zamfara, other states in the north-west experience the onslaught of the criminals where in the first three weeks of 2022, at least 486 people were said to have been killed.
Cost of banditry in North-West
Earlier statistics on the activities of the bandits in Zamfara between June 2011 and May 2019, indicated that 4,983 women were widowed, 25,050 children orphaned, and 190,340 persons displaced. 2,015 cattle, 141 sheep and goats, 2,600 donkeys, and camels were also lost to rustlers, while 147, 800 vehicles, motorcycles and others were burnt at different times and locations within the period.
The intensity of attacks and casualty rate has gone up given the effrontery of the criminals and the sophistication of their strategies.
Villages in Katsina have equally been compelled to pay ransom by the bandits to stave off attacks. Niger and Sokoto have also had similar sad experiences.
In March last year, 29 security men comprising soldiers, policemen and members of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), were killed by bandits in Shiroro Local Government Area in Niger state.
The impacts of the attacks are many. Farmers can no longer go to farms for fear of their life in the affected areas, resulting to high cost of food items. It has also affected investments as manifested in firms exiting Nigeria for neighbouring countries where their safety is guaranteed.
Some of the bandits are not merely involved in looting and pillaging. They are also members of the Boko Haram insurgent group.
How it all began
The retired diplomat traced the escalation of banditry to the dubious roles of politicians in the lead-up to the 2015 general elections who had assembled them as informal forces with which to destabilize the country if the poll did not go their way in their way. Some of the bandits, he said, were recruited from Niger, Chad, Mali and other neigbhouring countries.
“Unfortunately both those that won and those that lost the election, abandoned the boys. Left with no other option and having been armed, the boys took to banditry unleashing their anger on the people”, he said.
No end in sight
According to him, the pathetic aspect of the development is that curbing the menace will not be easy, given that the bandits have exploited the economic side of their odious engagements and may never give up easily. They are now making huge gains from the enterprise. They have also decentralized their operations. It’s no longer an issue of a particular gang being involved. There are currently pockets of groups seeking to make something from the business. It will take a more comprehensive action to rout them and not the present fire-brigade approach”, he said.
Moving against the criminals
The first strategy, he noted, is multi-lateral action in which all the countries in the sub-region will be involved in battling the bandits. Neighbouring countries, he said, should be dissuaded from allowing the criminals have safe havens in within their territories.
On the side of Nigeria, he advised fortification of the borders to minimise entry to criminals and smuggling of small fire arms. He disclosed that most of Nigerian borders are porous and poorly policed, leaving people to come in unchecked. Data from the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) in 2018, he said, indicated Nigeria’s land borders were vulnerable and the personnel to man them, grossly inadequate.
According to the data, there were about 1,500 identified land border crossings into Nigeria, with only 114, covering 4,000 square kilometres, approved control posts manned by merely 23,000 Immigration Officials and other security agencies.
Statistics also reveal that Nigeria has international land borders of about 4,470 km (2,513 miles) with Chad Republic, Cameroon, Benin and Niger and a coastline of 774km which are largely unmanned. These, the diplomat observed, are the loopholes the bandits and other criminal elements exploit to invade the country.
More action from the Govt.
He asked the government to be more aggressive in moving against the bandits if the war against them must be won. Asked if the idea of negotiating with the bandits as some states in the north are doing is the way out, he faulted the move as inffective, arguing that it only amounts to postponing the evil day.
In his words, “No responsible government negotiates with criminals. Doing so will amount to disservice and injustice to their victims. Criminals should not be treated with kid gloves. It is only the government that should have monopoly of the instrument of violence, especially in ensuring law and order. The bandits should not be dignified with undeserved treatment. The law should rather be allowed to take its course. Government should move against them squarely”.
