ZAMFARA: 2,619 killed, 1,190 abducted by bandits in one decade – Govt

* N970m spent on ransom payment

THE government has said that no fewer than 2,619 people have been killed in various attacks by bandits in the state since 2011.

The Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Dosara, at a press conference in Kaduna, today, disclosed that bandits have also abducted 1,190 people from various parts of Zamfara in the last eight years.

Dosara noted that over 100,000 people were displaced from their ancestral homes as a result of bandits’ activities, while 14,378 livestock were rustled within the period.

The commissioner also disclosed that the sum of N970m has been spent on the payment of ransom to bandits to secure the release of kidnapped victims within the decade under review.

The commissioner stressed that there are more than 100 different camps and over 30,000 bandits operating across Zamfara State and beyond.

Dosara, however, reiterated that despite these facts and figures revealed by the review, the government will not back out of the ongoing peace talks with bandits noting that the Matawalle administration won’t shelve the proposed amnesty programme for bandits.

He noted that the programme must continue in order to secure people in the state.

According to Dosara, Zamfara lacks enough security forces from the Federal Government to secure the lives and properties of the people in the state.

In spite of the spate of attacks in the state, he claimed that the attacks by bandits in the state have drastically reduced since the inception of the Bello Matawalle’s administration in 2019.

The commissioner said the government has put practicable measures in place, such as the peace and reconciliation process and the amnesty programme, to tackle the security challenges in the state.

He revealed that through the dialogue and peace process of the government, over 62 bandits have surrendered their arms – a development that has led to the release of over 2,000 kidnapped victims with the help of repentant bandits, the Zamfara govt claimed.

Giving a background of the genesis of rural banditry in Zamfara, Dosara said it started with a conflict between the Fulani and Hausa communities in the state.

He decried the recent upsurge in occasional attacks and kidnappings in some parts of the state, which he said were being masterminded by some conflict entrepreneurs and informants who often connive with the recalcitrant bandits to commit heinous acts.

Matawalle has been in the vanguard of the campaign for amnesty programme for bandits in the Northwest region of the country.

But despite his ongoing negotiations with bandits, a Government Girls Secondary School located in Jangebe in the state was attacked in February with hundreds of the schoolgirls abducted. The girls have since been released.

Matawalle claimed the girls’ release was secured by repentant bandits who prevailed on their colleagues still in their strongholds in the forests.

The governor, however, said the abduction was engineered by people bent on sabotaging the ongoing negotiations with bandits in the state.