Don meets bandit leaders in Zamfara, reveals operations

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By Hammed J. Sulaiman

A lecturer in the department of History, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, (UDUS) Sokoto, Dr. Murtala Rufa’i has offered insights on the operations of bandits and rising cases in Zamfara state.

Dr Rufai spoke at a seminar, titled “I am a Bandit: A Decade of Research in Zamfara Bandit’s Den” in university campus in campus on September 9.

The renowned field security researcher revealed that his findings included one-on-one meetings with bandits and commanders in their dens and hideouts.

According to him, reprisal attacks and counter-attacks within bandits’ camps has fueled banditry as about 30 splinter gangs have emerged after the fall of the first leaders of the rampaging groups.

He also noted that the collusion of bandits with foreign elements, use of women and children, and political sponsorship, adding that banditry need not to be painted with “ethnic colouration” as other tribes are partaking as gunrunners or in one way or the other.

He also revealed that illegal Chinese miners are not left out in this menace while revealing how banditry has “became more heterogeneous and transnational in 2016, constituting members from the Niger Republic, Mali and Chad, mostly Tuaregs with links to Sahelian rebels.”

After showing profiles of bandits via projector in pictures and videos, the presenter revealed that Alhaji Shehu Shingi from Zurmi is the main Boko Haram link with the bandits. According to Dr Rufa’i, banditry in Zamfara began long before the arrival of colonial masters.

“The hills of Kwotarkwashi and Chafe for instance, provided shelter to the criminals, from where they organised and executed their unwholesome activities, which often resulted in serious casualties.

“During the colonial period, the region was also confronted with a situation where bandits killed about 210 traders and made away with goods worth £165,000:00. As reported, this onslaught occurred in the Zamfara axis to victims from Kano on their way to French territory,” he stated.

Dr Rufa revealed that rural banditry has been waxing stronger by 2011 before being transformed into full-blown conflict engulfing most parts of the Northwest, stating that “traditional rulers, politicians, security agencies, gold miners have connived covertly or overtly in the conflict.”

He said, in 2011, the first criminal gang’s leaders of banditry to be notorious are armed groups led by Kundu and Buharin Daji who were both Fulani lineage.“They named the group Kungiyar gayu, meaning an association of young guys, even though none of them was a youth. The public referred to them as Kungiyar Barayin Shanu, (cattle rustlers association).”

Revealing their motive, he said that they started around 2012 when cases of cattle rustling began. “Members of the gang considered it as a cultural association aimed at the liberation of the Fulani from the high-handedness of security agents, traditional rulers and politicians.

”The Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor. L.S. Bilbis while giving his closing remarks stated that Rufai’s research confirms that a university is to provide the information, fill the missing gaps, and create other gaps.

“Research is to answer questions and ask other questions to be answered by other researchers. What we have done here is to give members of the public a hint of the genesis, evolution, and characterizations and characteristics of rural banditry.”

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