KATSINA State is currently facing a torrid time as it gradually imbibes the bitter lesson about the futility of forging a peace pact with criminal groups. This follows a renewed offensive by bandits with whom it thought it had sealed a deal to keep the peace.
These are but a few incidents of what people experience in the hands of kidnappers and bandits in the North-West state of Katsina, a state under siege, where, a few months ago, the Governor, Aminu Masari, and some of his colleagues from that part of the country were thumping their chest and celebrating the return of peace following an amnesty granted to criminals.
As Abdulaziz Yari, a former governor of the neighbouring Zamfara State, suffering from the same fate, once said, “They are in control of the kind of weapons that the command in Zamfara State does not have. In one armoury alone, they have over 500 AK-47 ; we saw it. Our people were even given the chance to take pictures.” This is humiliating, coming from non-state actors. They now dare the state that is supposed to have a monopoly of weapons of violence.
It was not surprising that after the whole amnesty, Kabir Abdullahi, a senator from Katsina State, spoke on the floor of the Senate, calling the attention of his colleagues to fresh killings in his state. He said bandits invaded Mara Zamfarawa in Danmusa LGA and Shimlida in Jibia LGA, killing 20 people. “Over 30 people were kidnapped and 10 vehicles burnt after looting all the belongings and goods of their victims,” he lamented.
The pension the governor paid them has finished so they need more money.
Could there be a positive correlation between the banditry in the north and the introduction of sharia?