- Arresting them without fatalities will enhance intelligence about the criminals’ activities
Obviously, bandits need weapons and food, which enable them to carry out their evil activities. So it is good news that the police arrested 60-year-old Umar Muhammed, who allegedly delivers weapons to bandits. According to the police, he uses his vehicle to transport hidden guns from one place to another, and he was caught with weapons.
In another case, policemen on patrol stopped four men suspected to be bandits on motorbikes on Tsaskiya-Ummadau Road, Safana Local Government Area of Katsina State. They are: Ibrahim Abdullahi, 40; Tukur Musa, 35; Abubakar Ibrahim, 21, and Rabi’u Hamisu, 19. The police found N3.4m, and Abdullahi, their leader, was said to have revealed that they were gun suppliers and had received the money from a notorious bandit, Tukur Rabiu, for six AK-47 rifles delivered to him. He said he got N100, 000 as commission for each weapon he supplied.
The police said: “Rabiu is hibernating at Rijana Forest, along Kaduna-Abuja Road… The suspect also confessed to be a gunrunner for one Abu Rade, a notorious bandit hibernating at Rugu/Dumburum forests of Katsina and Zamfara states.”
In yet another case, the police in Katsina State arrested four “suspected informants and suppliers of necessities to bandits” following a tip-off.
These arrests are reassuring as they demonstrate that the police are making efforts to tackle banditry. The arrests have reduced the number of those who provide weapons used by bandits, which is a positive thing. It is commendable that the police carried out the arrests without fatalities, which shows some discipline on their part. It would have been counterproductive if the gun suppliers were killed in the process of apprehending them. They are useful as sources of information in the fight against banditry, and even terrorism.
There is no doubt that the law enforcement authorities can benefit from the gathering of intelligence from those who make supplies to bandits. This is why the police should make more effort to find out how the bandits get their supplies and apprehend the suppliers.
Gun suppliers are important to bandits, and so are food suppliers. Another piece of good news is that the FIB Intelligence Response Team (FIB-IRT) arrested members of a group that allegedly supplies drugs, bread and other food items to bandits operating in Zaria, Kaduna State and its environs.
They were apprehended at the Rigachikun base following a tip-off, and revealed that they usually supplied bread to bandits at Galadimawa, Damari, Kidandan and Awala camps in Birnin Gwari and Giwa local government areas, Kaduna State. One of them said they also supplied information to bandits which helped their kidnapping and cattle rustling operations.
Bakery owner Hassan Magaji, who was arrested, said: “It was my workers that were arrested by the police on their way to deliver bread, and they brought them to my factory.” According to him, “The boom in my business began when I started supplying bread to bandits.” He had an agreement with them that they would pay upfront for their bread supplies.
He gave striking figures that showed bread consumption in the bandits’ camps, which possibly involved kidnapees, and the good profit he made. “They started with bread worth N20, 000 and gradually increased it to N50, 000 a day,” he said. “After removing the cost of the ingredients, I make as much as N150, 000 in a week.”
Business was better for him whenever the bandits kidnapped many people, he observed, adding that he supplied bread worth N70, 000 daily to the bandits that abducted some university students in Kaduna State. There have been recent cases of mass kidnapping of university students for ransom in the state.
Suppliers of arms and food to bandits help them to sustain their evil activities. Not surprisingly, the police have accused the arrested suppliers of criminal conspiracy. The fight against banditry should be not only against bandits but also those who aid them.
