Katsina Peace Deal Amid Renewed Bandits’ Attacks

Despite the numerous security strategies adopted and N36 billion injected into the security sector by Governor Dikko Radda, the security situation in Katsina state has seemingly crumbled amid the peace deal. Francis Sardauna writes.:

In his maiden speech upon inauguration as Governor of Katsina State on May 29, 2023, Dikko Umaru Radda had vowed to restore peace in the state by crushing bandits who were terrorising farming communities in the state. He also promised to lead security agencies’ operations to bandits’ enclaves.

It was a hope-inspiring and instilling statement for the people of the state, particularly those living in Jibia, Batsari, Kankara, Faskari, Safana, Sabuwa, Danmusa, Kurfi and Dandume Local Government areas, who had suffered terrible atrocities orchestrated by the marauders.

During the inaugural address, Radda said: “Over the next four years, our task as government is to provide peace and prosperity for the people of Katsina state. We will deploy all available resources to end banditry and criminality across the state.

“We will also engage communities in this fight to ensure that security is sustained. To the bandits, I say abandon your cause and reintegrate into society or face the full wrath of the law.”

But more than two years after, the joy the statement elicited is fleeting because the bandits have since intensified their deadly attacks on communities, leaving dozens of citizens, including security personnel, either dead or severely injured in the eight frontline local governments.

These malefactors are so brazen that they launch onslaughts on communities in broad daylight. They often notify some communities ahead of attacks and impose illegal tolls on farmers seeking to gain access to their farms in some communities.

The nefarious activities of these criminal elements appear to be threatening to bring down the socio-economic and well-being of the people of the state despite efforts by the state government and security operatives to quench the scourge which has ravaged many communities in the state.

Residents of the state, especially those in the frontline local government areas, have denoted a deep inarticulate sound conveying pains, despair, agony and misery, thereby forcing them to abandon their ancestral homes and farmlands in the hands of these marauding rogues.

While dozens of kidnapped victims in the state have lost their lives in bandits’ den, even after their families, friends and associates had struggled to pay millions of naira as ransom amid economic-meltdown, scores are still in captivity.

For instance, over 130 farmers who were recently kidnapped by the bandits in Dankurmi, Gamji, Tsaunin Jino, Unguwar Goje, Unguwar Sani and Zagi-Zagi communities in Sabuwa Local Government Area of the state, are still in custody of their abductors.

The three-day bandits’ house-to-house operations in the aforementioned communities and villages, has led to the death of at least six people and dozens left with varying degrees of gunshot injuries.

Also, the August 19, 2025 attack on Gidan Mantau in Malumfashi Local Government Area of the state which claimed over 50 lives, left 60 other innocent farmers, including women and children, in the hands of the marauding bandits, but some were later released.

For hours, the hoodlums reportedly operated in the agrarian community without hindrance or intervention from security agencies, thereby forcing scores of women into sudden widowhood and children orphaned.

Although Governor Radda said he got an intelligence report that bandits were going to attack the community and informed security agencies 15 hours before the invasion, there was no action taken by them to prevent the deadly attack on the community.

But it is pertinent to note that the victims of the Gidan Mantau massacre died in a reprisal attack after members of the community had earlier attacked the bandits, killing and injuring many of them.

Similarly, the bandits killed eight persons, including a security officer, and injured six others in a fresh onslaught on Magaji Wando village in Dandume Local Government Area of the state on September 5, 2025.

The bandits, who carried out the invariably coordinated attack in the night, set ablaze the operational vehicle of the state-owned security outfit, Katsina Community Watch Corps, and injured some of the officers.

Notwithstanding the nefarious activities of the bandits in the state, residents of Safana, Batsari, Jibia, Kankara, Musawa, Danmusa and Kurfi Local Government Areas (LGAs), have struck peace deals with the men of the underworld.

The peace deal has restored peace and farmers have returned to their farmlands in the seven LGAs, but pundits termed it peace of the graveyard, because the criminals are still in possession of their sophisticated firearms.

With their operational networks and enclaves yet to be dismantled, the bandits who are in peace agreements with communities in the seven LGAs, have shifted their heinous operations to other local governments that have not signed the deal, with renewed killings and kidnappings.

Not minding who is championing it, the peace deal has emboldened the bandits to move freely with their firearms in communities across the seven LGAs. They launch attacks in communities in other local governments and return to their hideouts.

Clad in military uniform and police camouflage with AK-47 rifles, the bandits are now celebrities in communities across the local government areas where they struck peace deals.

They snap pictures with residents, including top government officials and security operatives in markets, shops, schools and even in residence of some politicians in the affected local governments.

This, perhaps, is giving them ample time to regroup and rearm themselves in order to invade  communities in local governments where there is no peace deal, underscoring the dangers of the blanket peace between communities and the hooligans.

However, Governor Radda, who has been feigning ignorance of the ongoing peace deals at the local government level, has adopted revolving and strategic security approaches to tackle the scourge for peace to rein in the state.

His administration has invested over N36 billion into the security sector and procured 43 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), armoured Toyota Land Cruiser Buffalo pick-up trucks, recruited and trained personnel of the state-owned security outfit.

He purchased and distributed 65 Hilux vehicles, 700 motorcycles, surveillance cameras and other security gadgets and has also been doling out billions of naira as financial assistance to victims of banditry, including security personnel.

Approvals were also granted during the state’s 12th executive council meeting, for the procurement of additional 700 motorcycles, 20 Hilux vehicles, security arms, machines, tools, clearing kits and operational manuals. 

The sum of N560 million has also been used in purchasing security equipment for personnel of the state’s security outfit to augment the efforts of conventional security agencies in the ongoing onslaught against terrorists.

The Radda-led government has promised to construct a hospital and a primary school in the banditry-infested Mantau community and rehabilitate houses and a mosque destroyed by the assailants.

Radda, who shortened his three-week medical leave to visit the community, announced an immediate relief of N500,000 to each household affected by the attack and construction of a road from Karfi to the community.

Despite Radda’s effort in taming the raging security challenges in the state, security pundits said, under his administration the security of the state has crumbled because of the pervasive killings and kidnappings of innocent citizens, including security personnel by the bandits.

Analysts argued that thousands of citizens are roaming the streets as internally displaced persons, with scores of children turned orphans, while many women have become widows due to the villainous activities of the bandits.

They added that Governor Radda is in a serious dilemma of whether to negotiate or not with the bandits because despite the N36 billion injected into the security sector, the security situation in the state is apparently deteriorating.

Worse still, with a fragile state system and waning public confidence in police, military and state security institutions, the allegiance of defenceless rural communities is gradually shifting towards informal, armed groups and local vigilantes.