For a long time, bandits, cattle rustlers and sundry criminals have been holding several local governments in Zamfara state hostage, as they kill with impunity and get away with it without causing a stir. On February 14, about 600 of them descended on Zurmi town but they were repelled. However, they shot sporadically at surrounding villages and the worst hit was Birane as SUNUSI MUHAMMAD writes in this report.
A small, obscure and sleepy town, Birani is about 120 kilometres from Zurmi town, the headquarter of Zurmi local government area in Zafara state.
Penultimate Wednesday, the rustic village leapt to national and global attention on February 14, when gunmen turned it into a killing field. A day earlier, some hunters had accosted an alleged rustler in the bush with cattle and sheep suspected to have been stolen. The herder, said the Police, then abandoned the animals and fled and the hunters thought the matter had ended. However, unknown to the them, an orgy of blood letting would follow their action. The suspect, according to reports, went to Isah local government area of neighboring Sokoto State, mobilized bandits and headed for Zurmi for an attack the next day.
Numbering about 600, the attackers came on 200 motorcycles, with three persons on each bike and all of them well-armed. Acording to the Emir, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar Mohammed, the attackers were repelled by about 500 vigilantes and that was how Zurmi people were saved. Unfortunately, the bandits turned their anger on travellers and other villagers on their way and Birani and other surrounding villages lost 41 people in cold blood. Last Sunday, the police have arrested three principal suspects in connection with the killings and their names are Halilu Garba, (aka Mabushi); Zubairu Marafa, (aka Wakili); and Nafiu Badamasi. According to Jimoh Moshood, the Police spokesman, further investigation is ongoing.
Yari, IG under fire
On February 14, when the killing happened, Governor Abdul Azeez Yari chaired the Nigerian Governors’ Forum meeting. Thereafter, he proceeded for the National Economic Council meeting the next day at the presidential villa, instead of rushing back to his state. On Thursday, two days after the attack, Yari was in Daura, along with other All Progressives Congress (APC) governors to condole President Muhammadu Buhari over the death of his two relatives. Nigerians, socio-political groups and political parties have severally condemned Yari’s seeming nonchalance over the tragedy. Specifically, Senator Kabiru Marafa who hails from Zamfara state, had accused the governor of laxity in managing the insecurity in the state. In addition, the senator blamed Yari for paying more attention to the Governors’ Forum as its chairman, than Zamfara state where he was elected to govern. Similarly, Marafa also blamed Minister of Defence, retired General Mansur Dan Ali, another Zamfara indigene, of a conspiracy of silence on the killings.
In addition, the House of Representatives also condemned the killings in Zamfara State, saying the attacks signalled the general insecurity in the country. According to Hon Abdulrazak Namdas, the House spokesman, the killings have reaffirmed its recent resolution demanding the removal of the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris. He also called to question the integrity of intelligence gathering in the country. The spokesman said that “it is amazing how people are able to move about freely with arms, come into a place and shoot and kill without resistance.
In addition, the Centre for Anti -Corruption and Open Leadership(CACOL) equally came down hard on the Zamfara governor for not showing compassion to the victims. According to Debo Adesina, its Executive Director, Yari should have visited the families of the victims and condole with them instead of visiting Katsina on a purported condolence visit to the President.
Similarly, the Campaign for Democracy(CD) equally upbraided Yari for his seeming insensitivity to the plight of his people. CD President Abdul Usman noted that ‘’such an action is wrong and the people must be wiser in the next elections in choosing leaders who have their best interest at heart.” In the same vein, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), speaking through its president, Malachy Ugwummadu, said leaders even cancel international engagements on account of a devastating situation back home. “Now we talk about 41 persons who died in an avoidable disaster in one state. What is the state of the governor’s conscience and how does he react to the plight of his people? Ugwumadu asked.”
In the same connection, former House of Representatives member in the second republic, Dr Junaid Mohammed, said these people’s death should be a source of worry to all Nigerians and the President. He said that “the governor is the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and I have warned him personally not to take other people’s responsibilities on his head, while his own responsibilities suffer.’’ According to Dr Mohammed, ‘’it is clear to me and to the vast majority of Nigerians by now that this is not a listening government. This is a government which came to mess itself and the country up. We now have a clear picture of what really bothers the Federal government. It is unfortunate that this Federal Government started thinking about second term almost days after it was sworn into office in 2015.”
Yari blames security agencies
On his part, the Zamfara state governor had accused security agencies in the country of failing to prevent killings in his state, despite alerting them about an impending attack 24 hours before it was carried out. Specifically, Yari made this known when he went to condole the emir of Zurmi on Friday evening, about three day after the attack. Yari, in the company of three northern governors, said that ‘’we had intelligence reports 24 hours before it happened, that the bandits were grouping and ready to attack. I alerted the security agencies but unfortunately, they sent inadequate personnel to confront these people.” According to him, Zamfara state government has done its best as “whatever was humanly possible that needed to be done, we as a government have done to mitigate this disaster. But it does appear that security agencies are failing in their responsibilities,’’ Categorically, the governor said that security agencies in the area failed to tackle the problem of cross-border banditry and terrorism affecting communities in the area. Yari said that he feels ‘’ let down facing the people of this state whenever I remember the promise I made to them that if they elected President Muhammadu Buhari into power, these killings would end. But unfortunately, things are now getting worse.’’ In the end, the governor asked the security agencies “to up the ante so as not to lose this war. If you let us put the matter in our hands, anarchy will reign, which is not what we hope for.
Emir: we know the killers
The Emir of Zurmi, while receiving Yari and his delegation, made a startling revealation. According to him, “These terrorists are known to us. Their major hideout is in a village called Kagara, very close to Bafarawa in Sokoto State, and a few kilometers from Shinkafi in Zamfara State. But despite several appeals to security agencies to storm the area, our appeals have failed. He further said that “I need to state here that majority of the weapons used by bad people in this country are brought in from this area. I had reason to personally inform Zamfara State’s Director of the Department of State Services sometime back of a large cache of weapons being brought into the country but no concrete action was taken until the containers were moved away.”
Buhari orders Defence Minister, security chiefs to Zamfara
Like always, President Buhari restated his administration’s determination to put an end to the spate of senseless spilling of innocent blood in parts of the country, following the Zamfara state attack. In addition, he directed Defence Minister Dan Ali to proceed to the state immediately to undertake an on-the-spot assessment of the situation and report back.
The president also directed security agencies to immediately mobilise and deploy their members to vulnerable areas of the state and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to face the full wrath of the law.
According to a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the president, Buhari commiserated with families of victims of the attacks. In addition, he assured Zamfara State government, victims of the mayhem and residents in the state that the federal government would continue do all it takes to support security agencies to secure lives and Iapparatus to stem the undesirable trend and prayed that God receive the souls of the departed and comfort their families. Significantly, the Inspector General of Police, lamented that the security situation in Zanfara State is getting out of hand. However, he promised a thorough investigation and bring the culprits to book when he paid a condolence visit to the palace of the Emir of Zurmi. Similarly, the Minister of Defence had warned the people to refrain from reprisal attacks.
Killing fields of Zamfara state
Since 2012 Gusau, Maru, Maradun, Anka, Talata Mafara, Bukkuyum, Shinkafi, Kaura Namoda and Tsafe local governments have been at the mercy of gunmen, cattle rustlers and all kinds of criminals. Last year, Governor Yari said more than 300 people have been killed by cattle rustlers in the last two years in the state. This statistics, according to analysts, was a very conservative number going by unreported cases of armed banditry in the state, where whole villages or communities have had to relocate because of the atrocities of gunmen.
In April 2014, the bandits descended on Yargalama village and killed over 120 vigilante members while holding a meeting on how they could use every mechanism to assist security agencies in the state to tackle insecurity challenge facing the state. In November last year, gun men killed at least 29 people in fresh attacks on four villages in Maradun Local Government area. Similarly, within the same week, another set of gunmen had invaded Mai Kansa village in Maru Local Government Area of Zamfara State, killing two mobile policemen and four others and kidnapping over 41 group of traders, including a Police Inspector, on their way to Magami Market. In addition, gunmen believed to be cattle rustlers have killed 36 miners in Bindin village under Maru Local Government area of Zamfara state.
Similarly, on September 4, 2017, suspected gunmen kidnapped three policemen attached to Keta outpost in Tsafe Local government area of Zamfara state. Eighteen days later, unidentified gunmen numbering to over 20 had invaded Tsafe Command of the Federal Road Safety Corps in Zamfara State , killing an official and abducting one personnel. In a similar development, on September 28, 2017, a group of armed bandits in Zamfara State had also ambushed troops of 223 light tank battalion attached to 1 division Kaduna, deployed for operations in the forest of Sububu Village in Shinkafi Local Government Area of the state in which one soldier sustained minor injuries and their two operational vehicles were burnt by the bandits during the encounter.
Significantly, owing to the incessant loss of lives and property in Zamfara state, President Muhmmadu Buhari launched ‘’Operation Harbin Kunama at Dansadau village on September 13 last year. Before then, cattle rustlers and kidnappers had exerted a heavy toll on the lives and property of the people of the area. Last February, the federal government had established an Air Force Base Station in Zamfara state to strengthen security. Minister of Defence, Mansur Muhammad Dan-Ali laid the foundation stone for the establishment of 207 Quick Response Group Air Force Station of the Nigerian Air Force in Gusau, the capital City of state as a result of cattle rustling and other armed banditry activities.
Govt / Bandits ‘agreement’ collapses
Early last year, Zamfara state government had initiated a dialogue between the bandits and government under the chairmanship of Deputy governor Malam Ibrahim Wakkala. The leader of the bandits, Buharin Daji who is also known as General, promised to abide by the truce and the state, as a result, witnessed relative peace since then. In addition, hundreds of armed bandits surrendered their arms to the state government and thousands of stolen cows were recovered and handed over to the real owners. On February 14, the truce finally collapsed with the attack of Birani, where over 41 people were killed. Before then, pockets of other killings have been going on unreported and several victims have been buried in unmarked graves, without the present outrage. Sadly, the situation may remain the same for some time.
