Bandits terrorising North West are Fulanis, not aliens – Masari

Katsina State governor, Aminu Masari, has taken the veil off the gang of bandits that have been terrorising his state and other North West states in Nigeria, describing them as Fulanis.

Masari, who recently called on citizens to defend themselves from violent attacks by bandits described the marauders as people who speak the same language and profess the same religious belief as himself.

“They are the same people like me; who speak the same language like me; who profess the same religious belief like me. So, what we have on ground here are bandits, they are not aliens; they are people we know, they are people that have lived with us here for hundreds of years.

“The infiltrators we have are from West African countries and North African countries are also people of the Fulani extraction. Majority of those who are involved in this banditry are Fulanis, whether it is palatable or not, that’s the truth.

“I’m not saying hundred percent of them are Fulanis but majority of them are. And these are people who live in the forest with main occupation as rearing of cattle, probably over time their fortunes dwindled with climate change, lack of access to education – both Islamic and western education – also aggravated the situation,” Masari declared while featuring on Channels Television programme, Politics Today on Monday.

The governor who said he did not regret granting amnesty to bandits earlier in his administration, but given the benefit of hindsight would not have done same, attributed the state of insecurity in the north to certain reasons.

READ: Banditry: Acquire arms, defend yourselves – Masari tells Katsina citizens

He said: “The fall of Ghaddafi, instability in many West and North African countries saw influx of arms and ammunition, accompanied with illegal drugs and intoxicants that polluted the environments and that made them what they are and I think it’s our responsibility to curb this and we in Katsina together with the governors of the other north western states we are determined to curb this.”

Asked by the anchor, Seun Okinbaloye, on why it has remained so difficult to arrest and prosecute the hoodlums for their crimes against the people and the state, since their hideouts are well-known to the security agencies, the governor pointed to the challenges of terrain, necessary military hardware and activities of informants.

According to Masari, “It is not about difficulty to prosecute them. The difficulty is in accessing where they are. They live in the forest. The terrain is very bad and reaching them in the forest and rocky area is also very difficult, especially like we said, the necessary equipment to reach up to where they are, are not readily available.

“So, I think with the help of technology and what we have seen the Nigerian Air Force is trying to do, I think we should be able to reach some of the camps of major leaders among them and really bring them to book, and I think, without divulging more, the effort we are making here, has started recording some successes, with regard to reaching out to the most difficult areas.

“You know that there are a lot of that area that are ungoverned because they are forest area, so access to them becomes very difficult, especially in this raining season but it’s not impossible and I think using technology we will be able to reach wherever they are and fish them out.”

READ: Katsina State under severe bandit attacks daily – Gov Masari

He continued: “The biggest problem in dealing with this situation are the informants. They are everywhere; they are in the market; they are in the airport. Any plane that comes or goes, they inform. They are in the villages. When they see the truck, military or police, they inform, when they see the vigilante they inform. The problem is the support the informants are giving to the bandits is also empowering the bandits with information.”

He stressed that bandits posed great danger to society as their mission is to steal and kill and therefore, they should be treated as criminals.

“The reality is, there is nobody in the forest that can discuss peace. For me, anybody in the forest is a potential criminal, so I think it should be dealt with as such,” he added.

Also, during the interview, the governor hinted that his administration is considering banning open grazing in the state.

He, however, said that before a law banning (cattle) roaming is enacted, provisions would be made for where the animals would stay.

Asked whether he would support disconnecting the state by mobile network operators, as had been ordered in Zamfara by the National Communication Commission (NCC), Masari said the state government had already written the NCC to disconnect 13 local governments, where activities of bandits are known to be more intense.