Was it not strange that the abduction of Kankara boys occurred on the day President Muhammadu Buhari arrived Daura, his hometown, in Katsina State, on a private visit? It is even more curious that the abductees were released on his birthday. Buhari last visited the state in December 2019, when he inaugurated construction work on the N18 billion University of Transportation, Daura.

While Borno in the North-East is the epicentre of Boko Haram terrorism, Zamfara in the North-West seems to be the hotbed of armed banditry, and Katsina, the home state of the President is fast becoming the haven of the fusion of notorious gangs of terror-bandits.

Just recently terrorists massacred over 45 farmers at Zabarmani in Borno and armed bandits kidnapped an Imam and 17 Muslim worshipers while observing congregational prayer at Dutsen Gari mosque in Zamfara before the terror-bandits abducted large population of students in Kankara, Katsina State.

The Katsina State Government had officially announced the abduction of 333 Kankara students before the Government of Zamfara State confirmed the release of 344 boys by the bandits.

In the peak of the crisis, an audio message from Shekau’s faction of Boko Haram, which had claimed responsibility for the abduction, did not provide video footage or photo evidence. The propaganda merely confirms the fact that bandits in the North-West and terrorists in the North-East are forging ties to destabilise the nation. In fact, PRNigeria has reported that terrorist groups are now recruiting the services of local gangs of bandits to carry out attacks and abductions for rewards.
The claim of responsibility by the terror group compelled some states to announce the closure of schools, especially in Katsina, Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara and Jigawa.

The latest incident of abduction which evoked memories of the 2014 kidnap of more than 275 students of Chibok Girls Secondary school in Borno State by terrorists, is fuelling a political rivalry between the People Democratic Party (PDP) and All Progressives Congress (APC) as they engage in blame game over the saga.

When the spokesperson of APC, Yekini Nabena, issued a statement to the effect that a governor in the north-west was sponsoring bandits in the region, Governor Matawalle of PDP promptly retorted by saying that Zamfara was a den of bandits with high cases of banditry under the leadership of APC.
Even though Gov Masari had confirmed a negotiation between Katsina government with the abductors, Gov Matawalle insisted that he facilitated the release of 344 schoolboys without any payment of ransom. In an interview with Daily Nigerian, Zamfara Governor said he deployed repentant bandits and the leadership of Miyetti Allah to identify the syndicate that led the abduction, and then started the negotiation process.

While security services, especially the military are also laying claim to the rescue of students from captivity, it would be recalled that a joint rescue operation was launched when intelligence services identified Zango/Paula forest as the hideout of the abductors, before a leader of a terrorist group claimed responsibility for the abduction. There are aerial videos and photos of troops monitoring the movements of the bandits and the students in the forest during the saga. The persistent military surveillance through ISR to some extent denied the abductors freedom of action and prevented the movement of the children across the border to a neighbouring country.

The motorcycle-riding armed bandits have been actively involved in cattle rustling for trade, kidnapping for ransom, raping for pleasure and mass murder in reprisal attacks, sometimes against security forces in most daring and worrisome coincidences.

Apart from the abduction of Kankara students during the President’s visit in Katsina, another coincidence was the killing of 23 Nigerian soldiers in an ambush by armed bandits in Jibia area in July. That deadly attack on troops occurred after the Chief of Army staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusuf Buratai had flagged off a Special Army Super Camp IV in the State. In fact during the flagging off ceremony in Faskari, Buratai said the establishment of the super camp was to mark the commencement of “Exercise Sahel Sanity 2020” to curb banditry and other forms of crimes plaguing communities in the North-West. He also commissioned intervention projects executed in various communities in Katsina to improve the civil-military relationship.

Similarly, in November (last month), heavily armed bandits, dressed in military camouflage, kidnapped nine police officers in the rank of Assistant Superintendents of Police (ASPs) between Kankara and Sheme towns in Katsina, before they were rescued/freed afterward.

Before then, in June, bandits stormed communities in Faskari and killed more than 46 people, mostly the aged, women and children. Some of the communities affected in the gruesome attacks include Kadisau, Maigora, Kabalawa, Kwakware, Raudama and Unguwar Wahabi.

Intelligence has shown that the bandits operate from their hideouts in the massive and dreaded Rugu forest that cuts across Jibia, Safana, Danmusa, Batsari, Dandume, Sabuwa, Kankara and Faskari Local Government Areas of Katsina State.

Surprisingly, as the Nigerian military intensifies its offensives in decimating several camps and neutralising many of the bandits, mostly through massive air raids and ground operations, the ranks of bandits increase by the day.

Despite the release of Kankara boys by terror-bandits, citizens still live in fear and apprehension of further attacks by bandits. In fact, the freed students while lamenting the suffering they went through in the kidnappers’ den, said they were not willing to return to school.

There is also the fear that with the vast majority of the population in that region living in extreme poverty, and kidnapping becoming a lucrative industry, some of the youths may be tempted to join the underworld in the nefarious business of ransom payments.

Therefore, there must be concerted efforts to tackle the emergence of armed terror-bandits, a conspiracy between terrorists and bandits not only in Katsina but elsewhere in Northern Nigeria.

I believe strongly that the government and the citizens should should evolve strategies in tackling the menace. They should address poor education, improper upbringing, drug addiction, joblessness, poor governance and above all weak intelligence gathering to help security services in tackling the worsening insecurity in Nigeria.

Yushuau A. Shuaib
www.YAShuaib.com

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One writer rightly said that good professional soldier-officers are brought to assume sensitive political offices ill-prepared which they are mostly temperamentally unsuited for..
This brought me to a recent news story in the Tribune newspaper entitled “Madaki Raps Buhari,” of October 31, 1991 on a front page and reported by Etosa Iroh that Governor John Madaki of Katsina State was said to be rapping former Head of State, General Muhammad Buhari with an unsavoury languages on an allegation that he (Madaki) requested for N20 million from the General who is the chairman of Katsina Development Fund, but that the former head of state refused to release the money on the grounds that the fund was not scheduled for the project Madaki had eyed.
For this, the governor went to the extent of threatening to sack the chairman if he failed to grant him the fund. The accusation as explained by the governor put people in doubt if the state chief executive could indiscriminately utter such disheartening statements against the personality of the former head of state, General Mohammed Buhari.

We are all living witnesses that Buhari and his lieutenant, Tunde Idiagbon were never at any time accused of corrupt enrichment from public funds during their regime. As such General Buhari could not have gone so low to start stealing now. How can he be accused of attempting to mismanage the fund of a state which was just a local government when he ruled several states as the commander in chief? This brief explanation is to assure the people of Katsina State that General Buhari means no harm to the public treasury/endowment entrusted in his safeguard.
It is also clear that the governor was irked and saw no reason for Buhari’s intention to call for the committee meeting over the release of the fund. He expected that as a military governor all his requests must be approved and granted without recourse to laid down rules and procedures.
If Buhari, a chairman of a very sensitive committee could not summon a meeting to dole out such huge sums of money to the governor, how would he account for it once the people ask him? Indeed, Buhari did the right thing by calling for the committee to deliberate on it before any disbursement. Nothing is more becoming of a great man than courtesy of forbearance said in a politeness which has to do with saying the kindest utterance in the kindest manner.

This rejoinder by Yushau A. Shuaib was originally published in The Triumph November 13, 1991

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