Why banditry may not end in Katsina –Commissioner

From Agaju Madugba, Katsina

Katsina State Commissioner for Internal Security, Nasir Muazu, has given graphic details why combating the criminal acts of banditry and kidnappings for ransom may remain intractable in the area.

He said investigations indicated that some unscrupulous members of the communities provide essential services to the hoodlums and make huge sums of money in the process.

“They sell fuel to the bandits for as much as N5,000 per litre while a bottle of soft drink goes for about N3,000,” the Commissioner said at a press briefing at the Government House.

He said the security forces would have solved the problem but regretted further that bandits’ informants constitute about 80 per cent of the entire banditry and kidnapping process in the state. “Some members of the communities who own shops sell their products to bandits at exorbitant prices, making it difficult to get their cooperation in a bid to address the security challenge.

“In one of the communities affected by insecurity, a man was found to be selling a bottle of soft drink for N3,000, another sold fuel for N5,000 per litre to bandits.

“Drugs that are usually sold for little amounts of money in pharmacies and other shops are sold in the millions of Naira by community members to the bandits,” Muazu said.

According to him, some members of the communities also connive with bandits to abduct residents.

“In one case, we found a man who connived with bandits to abduct his biological father who was diabetic.

“When the bandits took him to their hideout in the forest, they had already procured diabetic medication for his daily consumption.

“The sum of N30 million was paid as ransom for the man and N8 million was given to the man for compromising by allowing his father to be abducted,” he said.

Bandits’ informants have also penetrated the Katsina airport, the Commissioner lamented, explaining that, “the informants are known to alert bandits whenever Nigeria Air Force (NAF) jets leave the airport for air strikes of hideouts of bandits,” leading to unsuccessful missions.

He noted however that the government has recorded significant success in the insecurity fight in some Local Government Areas, deploying kinetic measures, “but non-kinetic measures are also important to ensure lasting end to the problem,” he said.