₦airaland Forum

This summary is done by Mr Ayo Eleso:

I have just read the entire 56 pages of this paper, “I am a Bandit: A Decade of Research in Zamfara State Bandit’s Den,” delivered by Dr. Murtala Rufa’i in September 2021, and I have provided a summary so that you wouldn’t have to read the entire document.

1. Contemporary rural banditry started in Zamfara in 2011, and the first gang was formed by two criminals known as Kundu and Buharin Daji.

By 2021, just a decade later, over 120 bandit gangs have emerged and had presence in six states. 10,000 bandits operated in Zamfara alone, killed over 12,000 people, stole more than 250,000 cattle, destroyed about 120 villages, and displaced 50,000 people.

2.As far back as 1891, banditry had existed in Zamfara, so it is not a new phenomenon in that region of the country.

Oral historians spoke of it and accused traditional rulers of colluding with bandits to rustle cattle and rob people. In fact, in the colonial period, bandits killed 210 traders and stole goods worth about 150,000 British Pounds.

The colonial government had to respond swiftly by stationing armed policemen in all strategic routes to curb this menace.

3. There are different speculations about the emergence of banditry in present day Zamfara.

The first speculation is that politicians recruited some youths and gave them arms to achieve their political agenda in 2011. After winning the elections, these armed youths were abandoned. Since they had weapons, they began to rob people and rustle cattle, and instead of state authorities tackling this challenge, they gave the bandits amnesty and state pardon.

The second speculation is that the bandits are simply aggrieved groups fighting for justice. They had since been subjected to extortion, exploitation, and deprivation by different state agencies. They formed a group named Kungiyar Gayu, which means ‘an association of young guys,’ to fight for social justice.

The third speculation is illicit mining. Illegal miners, seeking to gain the upper hand over their competitors, armed young boys from the forests of Dan Sadau, Dan Gulbi, and Bagega, all major mining areas in Zamfara State, a state blessed with huge gold deposits. These local miners collaborated with illegal foreign groups of South African, Chinese, and Russian origins to supply arms to the young boys. They delivered arms using helicopters. Some traditional rulers are also alleged to be involved in these illegal mining activities.

4. Sheik Gumi, after a tour to some of the bandits’ dens, provided an estimate of 100,000 arms in the hands of bandits, which raises the question of how these bandits get weapons.

The ‘porous border thesis’ provides an explanation. Nigeria has about 1,950 official borders, but there is an absolute shortage of manpower to oversee these borders. Even when these borders are manned, some of the officials have been accused of conniving with bandits to facilitate the movement of weapons into the country.

5. Teenage boys, young girls, and even married women, are involved in banditry. Some attacks have been carried out by teenage boys without the consent of their elders.

The young girls provided services such as intelligence gathering and serving as cooks to the bandits. Sometimes these armed girls were charged to look after the kidnapped victims so that they do not escape. These women also received their share of the ‘spoils of war,’ in cash and cattle

It should be noted that not every one of these women chose to become bandits. Some of them were given out as wives to leaders of bandit groups in exchange for protection of their villages

6. Bandits have also been involved in raping young girls who were sent to fetch firewood or cut grass in nearby bush. In 2012 alone, over 50 cases of rape were recorded in one district, but the number is higher, as many parents often keep silent to avoid social rejection of the victims.

7. Finally, banditry has become very sophisticated, as bandits have grown in strength, tactics and connections with various terrorist groups across West Africa and beyond.

With all the atrocities committed by these bandits, is it right to keep addressing them as bandits? Should they not be addressed as terrorists?

Thank you for reading.

You can access the full document here if you are interested in reading it:

Source

APC promised "change", They should tackle the banditry head-on, simple.

Sheik Gumi, after a tour to some of the bandits’ dens, provided an estimate of 100,000 arms in the hands of bandits, which raises the question of how these bandits get weapons.

There is a reason why most of the non-Hausa northerners became Christians ..........Yes, Fulani banditry and slavery 100+ years ago.
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lies were you there or just to make people think you making sense

What's the essence of this info?



Let the daed bury the daed,simple

Congratulations to them. They should continue.

In case you don't know, introduction of Sharia law also started in Zamfara state during the era of Governor Sani Yerima (1999-2007)

.. you can connect the dots and see the root cause of Islamic terrorism and banditry in Nigeria.

Can we then conclude that the introduction of Sharia in Zamfara state is the beginning of all banditry and terrorism in Nigeria?

BDT 101(Introduction to banditry)

Yeye deh smell

All this nonsense story just to exnorate a failed system/government.
You said they have grass root dated to 1891, but ex president buhari said they were foreigners, so who is fooling who?
The real shiit happening are illegal mining, kidnapping for ransom and land grabbing.

"if terrorism lasts for more than 24hrs, government has a hand in it"
- Gen Sani Abacha

So say a book by a Bandit, to be read by Bandits

Divide the country NOW, so some people can eat what they plant.

1. Matawalle chook his hand inside...

The name of the university, quite ironic

They aren't bandits.

The proper name for them is marauder gangs or bands

Edit: The proper name for them is "marauders"= one who roams from place to place making attacks and raids in search of plunder

the love agbero partners crooks party have for bandits is too much.the builder of Lagos State from the sea is here to fix Nigeria everybody should chill till 4080

Many stories to this earliest times of terrorism/bandit debut.
I want to read more about it. Beginning to understand something.

How about the Al ha Akbar part they chant when they slaughter people.
.
The media trying to cover up the Jihadist dimension of the attacks. We can't say that part does not exist
..
This is how media intentionally water down history

As long as the Islamic Jihadist Bandits do not cross over to South East. We are good..

Since they have been banditry in zamfara since 1891 that means it they have been married for so long.

So I don't put mouth in married people issue
As long as it doesn't affect me

If they killed 12,000 zamfrara people and zamfrara has no problem.
Then why should I be bothered.??

It's family issue that don't concern me

Thanks to President Donald Trump for calling all the misfits to order 📌💯🔥

He said much without saying anything.

Matawalle MUST GO...
ENUF IS ENUF

My first real exposure to the history of banditry was the story of a group that operated in Ilorin in the pre-colonial era. And honestly, the way they worked back then is almost identical to how bandits operate today.

They would storm a compound, seize the man’s wives and children, and then demand ransom. If he couldn’t pay, they didn’t hesitate; they sold the captives into slavery. Some of those slaves were eventually pushed into the wider Arab slave routes disappearing forever.

Zamfara State, poor people (pun intended).

Not only does the state comes last when the states are arranged in alphabetical order, it also manages to come last in most reasonable counts.

Rather than focus on education and the core elements that can help its people, its retinue of heartless politicians continue to pursue Sharia law with no empirical evidence of the benefits to the people. With gold and other resources in its command, the people are no better off.

Despite the Sharia law it championed in Nigeria, YoY data keep showing that all the negative indices stack against them.

Who has an idea of the timeframe the White House gave President Tinubu

wellmax:
Can we then conclude that the introduction of Sharia in Zamfara state is the beginning of all banditry and terrorism in Nigeria?

Not actually, this banditry has political undertune, the wicked One (Bubu) was the primary instigator of the evil of banditry and for 8 good years he do little or nothing about it,

Gumi can go into their hideouts and copy t up to 100k weapons but the Nigerian army cannot go there

Not surprised to read that it was in their history since 1891. Thanks to the British who squashed it then.
But when history repeated itself again, fhey got pardon and peace talks. If these set of people in Zamfara were in the Niger Delta, i wonder how we would have been able to make money by exporting oil. They better curb it now else it will become a way of life.

I have my beefs with this article

When iit was subsistence mining and their water source polluted from lead poisoning,government ignored them while they died in droves.
Lives of simple people don't matter to those in governance. It has now grown to a syndicated multi million dollar organisation involving foreigners. They are now rebels in arms against opposition