Insecurity: Zamfara Residents Still in Search of Respite

Despite sustained efforts to curb insecurity in Zamfara State, its residents have continued to live in constant fear due to the incessant attacks by terrorists since the past seven years, writes Onuminya Innocent

After weeks of incessant attacks in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State, the terrorists wreaking havoc in the state reportedly sacked about 50 communities and abducted hundreds of residents. 

A week earlier, the area was overrun by the group that killed three officials at the emir’s palace and abducted many residents.

The state has been ravaged by banditry, leaving its residents in a constant state of fear and uncertainty. 

Killings, abductions, and assaults on women and girls have tragically become the norm.

For these residents, life is really brutish as farmers cannot go to their farms and women cannot engage in their trading without fear of attack.

The nefarious activities of the marauders have also spilled into other parts of the North-west geopolitical zone, including Katsina, Sokoto and Kaduna states, as well as in North-central.

The bandits have so far reportedly killed thousands of innocent persons, and kidnapped several others including schoolchildren, with some still in their custody, while others who were lucky to survive, are still nursing injuries sustained during the attacks.

Even the security agents, including soldiers and policemen posted to the state are not spared as they are ambushed, killed or injured at regular intervals.

Only last Tuesday, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, announced in a statement that four soldiers were killed last Sunday in an ambush by terrorists in the state. 

According to him, the troops encountered two separate ambushes by the terrorists at Kuran Mota village as well as Zurmi and Yarmalimai.

Zurmi is the second most populous town in the state after Gusau, the state capital. Lying on the border with the Niger Republic and sharing boundary with Katsina State. The terrorists who wreak havoc in the area usually ride long convoys of motorcycles to their targets despite the presence of security personnel in the areas.

In March, the state Governor, Dauda Lawal, raised the alarm on the level of insecurity in the state, saying the state was under siege and appealed to President Bola Tinubu to come to their rescue. 

Addressing State House correspondents after a meeting with the president in Abuja, the governor reportedly stated that the whole of the northern part of the country would be in trouble if nothing was done to arrest the situation.

According to the governor, the state has become the epicentre of terrorism, despite efforts by the state government to end the criminal activities.

 He said he had specifically requested for more military personnel and equipment to tackle the current security situation in the state.

“There have been several attacks in some of the local governments. I feel as a responsible governor, I should make this known to Mr. President, who is pleased with the discussion. We have and are looking for more military personnel as well as the equipment for them to be able to function effectively and take care of the security situation. Zamfara has become the centre of banditry as we speak today, and if nothing is done, I don’t think we will be able to solve the situation in the entire Northern Nigeria,” the governor explained.

The governor further revealed that most of the people kidnapped were kept in the state.

“That is not good for us, and therefore we’re doing everything to change the narrative, and that is one of the reasons I came to see the president today. That is why I am here today. I have informed Mr. President and I have his assurance that something drastic will be done to take care of the situation as soon as possible.

“As you are fully aware, we as governors don’t have control over the military as well as the police. It is the responsibility of the federal government. “Therefore, at any point, we need to inform Mr. President so that we can get his blessing either to direct them or to do something else that will help them take care of that situation,” he added.

The situation in Zamfara State over the years has deteriorated so badly that the federal government in September 2021, shut down the state’s mobile communication network to curtail the activities of terrorists who used informants to carry out nefarious activities. 

But this measure did not tame this monster.

This made the government declare the criminal acts of the bandits as acts of terrorism to provide sufficient grounds for the terrorists to be dealt with appropriately but their activities escalated.

In the same year, the then Governor Bello Matawalle-led state government shut down two local government areas of Anka and Bukkuyum and suspended all political activities until further notice following a surge in terrorism. The state government said it was alerted to massive infiltration of the state by terrorists from the Niger Republic.

It said the restrictions would allow the military to flush out the terrorists.

 The state’s Commissioner for Information, Ibrahim Dosara Magaji, who announced the decision to shut down the two local governments, said the state government approved the recommendations as presented by the state’s security council, aimed at curtailing the activities of the terrorists and expressed worries over the killings of innocent people in Gusau, Tsafe, Gummi, Bukkuyum, Anka Bungudu, Maru, Maradun and Kaura Namoda LGAs.

Ironically, despite the massive insecurity in the state, huge numbers of voters were churned out during presidential, governorship and legislative elections in 2023, making those outside the state wonder why there is usually peace only during elections.

Because the entire North-west states have been adversely affected by banditry and terrorism, governors from the zone last week approached the United Nations for humanitarian assistance and rehabilitation of their geopolitical zone.

A statement by the National Information Officer, UN Information Centre (UNIC), Oluseyi Soremekun, said the governors met with the United Nations Country Team led by the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Mohamed Malick Fall, and that they had asked the UN to support their states to deal with the numerous developmental challenges they face.

The Chairman of the North-west Governors’ Forum was quoted in the statement to have said: “The only way we can surmount the challenges of North-west is through a regional approach which demands that we work together in a coordinated manner. We need to collectively fight poverty and unemployment being the major root causes of insecurity in the region.”

The UN Resident Coordinator, on his part, expressed his delight at receiving six of the seven governors in the zone and assured them that the United Nations family would support the region to address those development challenges.

He noted that with the varied high levels of multidimensional poverty, the Sustainable Development Goals would only be achieved in Nigeria if the northwest got it right, and this in turn would impact positively on the African region.

Narrating what happened in Zurmi last week, Bello Hassan, who represents the Zurmi/Shinkafa Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, told BBC Hausa Service that the gunmen also killed two police officers and three civilians during the attacks.

The lawmaker said over 500 people may have been abducted in the affected villages over the weeks. He said the wanton attacks had forced many of the residents to flee their homes while those who stayed behind were molested by the gunmen.

“At Kanwa village on Saturday, the gunmen killed three people and abducted over 30 others. At Gidan Shaho in the Nasarawa area on Monday, they killed two police officers and wounded many people. “We are now trying to ascertain the number of people missing following the (latest) attack. There is a need to redefine some of the approaches being deployed by the security operatives in fighting the terrorists in Zamfara,” Hassan said.

“The truth of the matter is that the security operatives deployed in Zamfara State are insignificant. Some of them deployed in the areas have overstayed, some for eight years, others for 10 years. “They have stayed longer than necessary, they need to be changed. We have reported this issue severally to those authorities concerned but without any response.”

Hassan urged the security agencies to send more officers to the area and change their tactics in fighting the terrorists. He said the attacks were continuing despite the efforts of the federal and state governments to check the atrocities.

It is high time the federal government took a decisive decision on how to tackle the insecurity ravaging the country, particularly in Zamfara, Borno, Plateau, Benue, Taraba and other states, which is really threatening the foundation of the country.