Some repentant bandits have told Katsina State Governor, Aminu Masari that some soldiers and policemen are fueling banditry and kidnapping for monetary gain.
The ex-bandits made this known on Wednesday, saying that the situation will persist until security operatives stop extorting money and cattle from them.
The dialogue session was initiated by the governor after a series of attacks on people of the state.
The governor, therefore, met these former bandits at Gbagegi Primary School, Dankolo in Dandume local government area.
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A repentant bandit, Idris Yayande said: ‘Soldiers, policemen and other security agencies are fueling banditry, kidnapping and other heinous crimes through large scale extortion in return for their support to us. We have lost confidence in them. We prefer to work with the local vigilante’’
Corroborating him, leader of Volunteers (Yan-Sakai), Lawal Tsoho, accused soldiers, policemen, other security agencies and some politicians in the state of working against the ongoing dialogue between the bandits and the state government because they are benefiting from banditry. He explained: “I have all evidence to prove my statement”,
He said: “Some of our members were apprehended in villages across the state and detained for years without committing offence.”
Yayande gave the names of some of their members arrested and detained in different prisons across the state and urged the government “to release them before the dialogue.”
He listed those in detention as: ” Alhaji Lawal Bandu, Ibrahim Nabutamu, Sani Marji, Sani Zafi, Lawal Mairuwa and there are some of our children that were arrested by soldiers in layin-Mahuta last year; Juro, Ali, Adamu, Abdulrahman and since then nobody told us where they are and what happened to them.
“So, we are pleading with the state government to release them to us. We don’t have anybody in our custody now. We promised before that nobody will farm within this area but because of the dialogue we surrendered. If you hear of any attack it is not from us”.
