For over a decade, Zamfara state has been facing challenges of insecurity as a result of the activities of armed bandits, resulting to killing of over 3,000 people. This ugly trend also caused a lot of predicaments including proliferation of arms and ammunition, destruction of thousands of houses, rendering thousands of citizens homeless, high rate of internally displaced persons, abject poverty, among others.
Zamfara state as an agrarian state in the North-west is now non agrarian due to insecurity bedeviling the state where thousands of hectares of farmlands are inaccessible to both large and small scale farmers to cultivate. This has also created a lot of socioeconomic setbacks in the state.
The state has 14 local government areas, namely, Anka, Bakura, Bungudu, Bukkuyum, Gusau, Burning Magaji, Kaura Namoda, Gummi, Maradun, Maru, Talata Mafara, Tsafe and Shinkafi and Zurmi which were created to provide social amenities to the people at the grassroots, but unfortunately insecurity has frustrated this objective.
Kidnapping has also plunged the citizens of the state into abject poverty as over N1 billion has been paid to bandits as ransom by the affected communities in the last 10 years and thousands of married women have become widows and many children made orphans in the state.
What I am trying to emphasise here is that, since the inauguration of Governor Dauda Dare of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on May 29, 2023, the activities of armed bandits are on the increase almost on daily basis across the state.
This resurgence of banditry has forced many people to leave their ancestral domain and the issue of farming this year does not exist for them as the bandits banned all farming activities in some parts of the state. My perception here is that there will be starvation in zamfara state if proactive measures are not taken by both the federal and state governments to address the issue.
I will not support any dialogue by the state government to broker peace with these heartless terrorists but suggesting that the state government must collaborate with the federal government and security agencies to eliminate these terrorists for the restoration of peace in the state. This could not be achieved without the support of the entire citizens when necessary, particularly by given positive information about their hideouts (terrorists bandits and their informants) to security agencies for prompt response.
I read a report published by some national dailies recently that no fewer than 26 people including seven soldiers were killed by bandits at Kangon Garacci village under Dangulbi district of Maru local government area of Zamfara state. The bandits had also invaded Talata Madara town, the headquarters of Talata Mafara local government area of Zamfara state and kidnapped 10 workers of Triacta Construction Company Ltd. A day after, the bandits kidnapped 23 females in Damaga, Maradun local government area of Zamfara state who were trying to get firewood from a nearby forest in the area. This is indeed a devastating moment for every Zamfara right thinking person.
Another challenge which needs proactive measures to tackle are informants, giving information to bandits, to enable them to carry out their operations easily against innocent people in the state.
Security agencies must track all communications among people in the state particularly the areas where insecurity has become alarming in order to fish out the informants or bandits’ collaborators for them. However, this cannot be achieved without the support of the entire citizens of the state, feeding the security agencies with useful information.
I appeal to the federal and Zamfara state governments as well as all stakeholders in the state not to politicise the issue of insecurity but to tackle it squarely to end the nightmare.
Audu Shafaatu Abdullahi,
Department of Mass Communication,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna state
