Francis Sardauna in Katsina
A member of Katsina State House of Assembly, Hon. Jabiru Yauyau saturday said the peace accord between the marauding bandits and the state government had collapsed.
Yauyau, currently representing Batsari constituency, urged the state governor, Alhaji Aminu Masari to work out alternative peace deal to end the activities of bandits and kidnappers in different parts of the state.
He made the call in a telephone interview with THISDAY, lamenting that killing and kidnapping of innocent citizens by the hoodlums had become a daily occurrence in the state despite the rapprochement.
The State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Gambo Isah, had earlier told journalists that bandits numbering over 200 fully armed with AK47 rifles launched attacks on six villages killing one person.
The simultaneous onslaughts, according to Isah, were launched on Tsugunni, Yandaka, Salihawar Duba, Garin Goje, Watangadiya and Dutse Maizane villages on Friday at about 11:00pm.
“They shot and killed one Alaramma Kabiru Kano, aged 57 years at Garin Goje village. Three others were injured at Dutse Maizane. Unspecified number of cows and sheep were rustled. The bandits laid ambush for the joint forces of military and police which led to heavy exchange of fire”, he added.
Citing renewed attacks and other nefarious activities in his constituency as reasons for the collapsed of the peace deal, Yauyau urged the state government to come out with workable measures that would end the scourge in the state.
Yauyau, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), also accused the security personnel of failing to secure the lives and property of the rural dwellers in the state, saying people have lost confidence in the Nigerian security.
He said: “Even today (Saturday), we have so many attacks and three persons were killed in two villages of Batsari Local Government. Two persons at Ruma and one at Tashar Kedeya. The situation is very bad and sympathetic.
“With this situation, there is nothing like any peace accord again. It has collapsed because if the peace accord is functioning, how can these bandits come and make these attacks at any movement?.
“What the state government should do is to rethink and come out with other alternatives that will end these killings and kidnapping in the state because the peace accord has collapsed.
“The peace accord did not function. In fact, it did not solve anything. Security operatives have also failed in securing the lives and property of the people. So, people have lost confidence in the Nigerian security”.
Masari had granted amnesty to bandits after a tour of Fulani settlements and strong enclaves of the bandits in Rugu Forest on September 4-9, 2019, during which the famous bandits and their forest commanders denounced banditry.
The initiative was adopted by the North-west governors following a peace summit convened in Katsina by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, that facilitated discussions with representatives of the bandits from the affected states of Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Sokoto, Kaduna and Zamfara States.
The rapprochement saw significant reduction in massive attacks on the state’s rural communities. But the resurgence of the banditry, observers said, might not be unconnected with the refusal of some of the repentant bandits to surrender their weapons after the peace deal.
