Banditry, kidnapping big industry for soldiers, policemen—Arrested bandits claim
Fresh boost has come the way of the revelations from the recent viral news of the freeing of arrested Adamawa billionaire kidnap star, Alhaji Wadume, by soldiers who killed three detective Policemen in the process of releasing him.
This stemmed from the confessions of repentant bandits, who told Katsina State Governor, Alhaji Aminu Masari that some soldiers and policemen are part of the banditry and kidnapping ring in the state in return for monetary gain.
While shocking the governor with the revelation, they warned that even though some of them had been arrested, the terror may not end unless the security operatives stopped their activities and extortion of money and cattle from them, the situation in the state would not change.
These were amongst the key issues raised during a dialogue session with the governor at Gbagegi Primary School, Dankolo in Dandume local government area on how to end banditry and kidnapping in the state and Nigeria in general.
Business Hilights gathered that the repentant bandits who met with the governor were drawn from two of the local government areas in the state – Dandume and Sabuwa – worst affected by banditry.
Since this year, President Muhammadu Buahri’s state of Katsina had been the relentless siege of banditry, cattle rustling and kidnapping which forced the Governor to initiate the dialogue with bandits.
Head of one of the bandit groups, Alhaji Idris Yayande made it clear before the Governor that large scale extortion perpetrated by the security operatives had seriously undermined the efforts of government to address the security challenges.
According to him, “Soldiers, policemen and other security agencies are fueling banditry, kidnapping and other heinous crimes through large scale extortion in return for their support to us. We have lost confidence in them. We prefer to work with the local vigilante’’
In quick succession, another dreaded leader of Volunteers (Yan-sakai), Lawal Tsoho, accused soldiers, policemen, other security agencies and some politicians in the state of working against the ongoing dialogue between the bandits and the state government because they are benefiting from banditry, claiming that “I have all evidence to prove my statement”,
He said for peace to reign, “Some of our members were apprehended in villages across the state and detained for years without committing offence must be released for any meaningful dialogue.”
Governor Masari assured the repentant bandits of workable solution to the crisis by the state government and possible assistance from President Muhammadu Buhari because it is his home state.
