THERE is no let-up in the violence raging across the country and Katsina is in the vortex again. Blood flowed freely as bandits slaughtered civilians in the North-West state at the weekend. Over 100 persons lost their lives in the attacks on innocent civilians and vigilantes. The Federal Government needs to change its strategy and end the bloodletting.
Nigeria has become one of the most dangerous places on earth to live. Life is cheap and the body bags are mounting. The violence in Katsina is typical. Reports said that more than 100 persons were killed when bandits engaged ‘Yan Sakai’ vigilantes at Yargoje Forest, Kankara Local Government Area on February 3 and 4. The villagers and vigilantes were said to have mobilised across seven communities to retrieve their animals rustled by bandits. But the teams were ambushed by the terrorists, who are well entrenched in the forests.
Apart from the scores killed and many others injured, the distraught communities are desperately searching for many others still missing. Search parties are still in the forests, a dangerous endeavour since the bandits are embedded there, from where they lay in ambush for the locals. The seven localities affected are Jargaba, Gidan Gago, Gidan Alhaji Audu Gari, Gidan Shirai, Gidan Baushe, Unguwar Gogai and Dicikia.
Banditry is a range of violent crimes which involves armed robbery, kidnapping, cattle rustling and raids of communities and markets. With the use of force, bandits enforce obedience, entrench fear, rape their victims, and illegally derive profits from them.
For residents of the North-West, banditry has been given free rein to ride roughshod on the landscape for a long time. This was caused by prolonged conflicts between land-holding farmers and nomadic cattle herders. The battle for arable land for farming, and the perennial intrusion of cattle on farmland has morphed into a more sinister challenge: cattle rustling, kidnapping and killings across the high plains of Northern Nigeria, with the support of non-state actors.
A report said more than 3,300 people were killed by bandits between 2018 and 2019 in the North-West. It linked the activities of bandits to the high spate of internally displaced persons, the breakdown of the family structure since many fathers had been killed by bandits, leaving the women to become breadwinners.
Furthermore, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, an NGO, estimated the killings by bandits in 2020 at 2,350, and 2,600 in 2021. The organisation considered the atrocities of bandits, Boko Haram, and the Islamic State of West Africa in its Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. The report stated that the recurrent tensions between farmers and herders were also caused by desertification.
Regrettably, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), rode on the back of his promise to secure citizens to win at the 2015 polls. He assured Nigerians that he would create “a crime squad to combat terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, militancy, ethno-religious and communal clashes in the country.” He told Nigerians in his 2019 campaign that he would sustain the anti-insurgency war and curb insecurity in the country. However, in December 2020, bandits abducted 344 pupils of the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara, Katsina State, a period Buhari visited Katsina. Indeed, under Buhari, insecurity has worsened. Each region continues to face unique dimensions of criminality. The regime has failed to fulfil the cardinal roles of any government to its citizens in the maintenance of law and order, provision of security, social welfare services, and protection of human rights.
The extent of Buhari’s incapability to tackle the menace of banditry was further exhibited when the advance team of security guards, protocol and media men attached to the President was attacked by bandits before the 2022 Salah celebration, near Dutsinma, in his home state. At least two police officers, including an assistant commissioner of police, died in the incident.
The high level of insecurity across the nation has also shown many citizens that their country is handicapped in the areas of surveillance, pre-emption, intelligence, and prevention of attacks by non-state actors. It also reflects the security agencies’ lack of control over the porous borders.
While the Presidency has directed strict border control measures towards the forthcoming elections, the prowess of the security agencies is yet to instil confidence in the people in Katsina and other parts of the North-West that they are safe to exercise their franchise.
On the part of the Northern governors, there seems to be acute powerlessness in tackling the banditry. As of June 2020, the government of Katsina disclosed that it had spent N30 million in an amnesty programme aimed at disarming repentant bandits. Governor Aminu Masari later said that the government stopped engaging the bandits after they became emboldened and more coordinated across the region.
Nevertheless, the Northern state governors continue to shy away from the urgency of establishing a robust state policing system that would be able to root out the enabling networks that the bandits have used against the people. This is unlike their counterparts in the South-West who have established the regional force called the Amotekun Corps. The reality on the ground confirms the urgency and inevitability of the need to establish and fund state police. The vigilante system they appear to favour in the region seems to be inadequate in the face of well-armed and resourced non-state actors.
More boots must be on the ground in areas that have consistently featured the heavy presence of bandit attacks. The ratio between police officers and the people is rather worrisome. Masari lamented a few years ago that there were only 30 police officers available to secure all the state’s rural communities.
The security agencies should re-strategise and secure the entire country; the state governors, federal and state legislatures should move today for the actualisation of state policing by invoking the ‘Doctrine of Necessity.’
