Engulfed in a fresh orgy of kidnapping and bloodletting perpetrated by bandits, Zamfara State is teetering on the brink of catastrophe. In renewed attacks, the rampaging bandits have raided several communities in three local government areas in the North-West state. Media reports estimate at least 79 casualties in Anka, Maradun, and Tsafe LGAs in the troubled state. This is a massacre. It is more disturbing when non-state actors now seemingly control territories instead of the constituted state and federal governments.
The narratives emerging from Zamfara suggest the government is at sea. In Maradun and Tsafe LGAs communities, bandits massacred 30 persons last week. The victims mostly consisted of farmers clearing the fields for the new farming season. They also gunned down an Islamic cleric at Maradun.
In retaliation, residents reportedly killed 24 bandits and seized eight of their motorcycles. Motorcycles have become the major vehicle of operation for bandits in the North-West. Surprisingly, the state is hesitant about enforcing the ban on motorcycles.
It was a bloody week in Anka LGA, which suffered grave losses after bandits invaded five communities there over five days – Tuesday to Saturday. When the dust cleared, at least 49 persons lay dead.
Anka residents reported that bandits slaughtered 18 persons in Farar-Kasa, 22 in Dangulbi, two in Duhuwa, four in Tsatsomawa, and three in Yar Sabaya communities. This is a heavy toll. Zamfara has been under the siege of banditry for years. The government is failing in its constitutional duty to protect citizens.
Something is seriously wrong because when non-state actors operate unhindered for five days in communities, it conveys the striking sense of superficial government presence in most Nigerian communities.
Unwisely, Nigeria operates a single federal police structure. The dire situation is aggravated by the policing system in which two-thirds of the 371,000 officer-corps are deployed illegally to guard VIPs instead of doing fieldwork and policing communities.
The atrocities in Zamfara remind the people of the widespread violence plaguing the North-West and Nigeria at large. A former Zamfara governor said there are 120,000 bandits in the North-West alone. In the North-East, Boko Haram, ISWAP and other Islamic terror franchises hold sway, particularly in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states.
This comes with devastating tolls. In the first quarter, Beacon Security and Intelligence said 2,583 Nigerians died in violence. The Goodluck Jonathan tenure (2010-2015) was marked by the abduction of 276 schoolgirls from their institution in Borno State in April 2014 by Boko Haram insurgents. Simulated bombings rented Kano city in 2011. Over 170 persons died in the anarchy. The UN headquarters in Abuja had been bombed in August 2012.
SBM Intelligence compiled 63,111 violent deaths under Muhammadu Buhari (2015-2023). In President Bola Tinubu’s first seven months in office, Nigeria recorded 5,135 killings.
For now, banditry is a local peculiarity to Zamfara. To curb the bloodletting, Governor Dauda Lawal should make it extremely difficult for the outlaws to move in groups, as they are doing on motorcycles. Lawal should immediately outlaw the use of motorcycles in the state until the terrorists have been defeated.
The federal police are shorthanded, weak, and ineffective. So, Tinubu should hasten work to establish state police. This way, there will be officers on the ground to fight the bandits and even take the battle to them in their hideouts. Tinubu should withdraw the police attached to VIPs and deploy them to the field.
Too many lethal weapons are in the wrong hands. The Federal Government should deploy its intelligence agencies to identify the sponsors of banditry and stem the influx of arms into Nigeria.
