Factors and Actors of banditry in Zamfara State [pt. 3]

Contemporary armed groups first emerged around Dan-Sadau District, Maru Local Government area in Zamfara state. Several hypotheses have theories and school of thoughts evolved as to the reason for the rise of the criminal gangs in the area.

The first is the speculation that says politicians in the state sponsored and armed some youth as political thugs to achieve their ambition in 2011. The youth were abandoned after winning the elections, who then went into drug abuse, cattle stealing, robbery and later transformed into armed gangs attacking villages on motorbikes.

The first motorbikes used in the attacks were donations from politicians during elections campaign. This explains the nexus between bandits and politicians in the state. At the onset of conflict in 2011, authorities in Zamfara remained adamant, confused and unresponsive; thus adding flavour to the politician’s connection to the conflict.

Instead of strengthening the formal and informal security architecture in the state, the conflict was “sedated” and armed groups were lull to sleep through amnesty and state pardon. The second narrative emphasized social grievance arising from the perceived deep rooted injustice against the pastoral communities.

The first armed group emerged with the name Kungiyar Gayu in Zamfara towards the end of 2011. Its initial aim as claimed by some of the founding fathers was to ensure the unity of the pastoralists and the struggle for social justice.

Their perception was that pastoral communities in the state were subjected to all forms of extortion, exploitation and deprivation from different agencies. They were denied justice mostly in the lower courts.

When a pastoralist was involved in any squabble with a farmer, the case would usually delay unnecessarily. The accused Fulani, known to have a phobia for courts and their unwarranted justice delay, would be ready to bribe his way out of the court.

Cases involving the police were the worst according to an informant who said that both the judges and police were ‘birds of the same feathers’. The Fulani man according to the narrative had became a source of income for the law enforcement agents.

Allegations of extortion extend to hospitals, where access to healthcare is often accompanied by extortion and exorbitant charges. Added to these is lack of access to education, veterinary services and animal feeds. Grazing routes and reserves were mostly shared amongst politicians and traditional rulers in the state.

Third is the illicit mining argument which sees the rise of the conflict from the perspective of the struggle amongst the miners each with the aim of getting an upper hand in the competition.

Zamfara State is one of the few States in the Northwest blessed with huge gold deposits mostly exploited by foreign illicit miners, Chinese, Russians, and South Africans in collaboration with the local artisanal miners.

The foreign firms were accused of supplying arms to the locals against their rival group. There were reported cases of raiding and killings around some of the mining sites in the state around 2014/2015; implying that they were sponsored by competing groups.

These atrocities were allegedly committed with the support of some traditional and political leaders within and outside Zamfara state.

Following this line of argument, the first set of armed groups according to sources was young boys from the forests of DanSadau, Dan-Gulbi and Bagega; areas the major mining areas of Zamfara. Helicopters were often seen in the areas exchanging weapons for gold.

Whenever and wherever these helicopters were spotted in an area, in no short time there could be bloodshed. This is the reason why observers pointed at the ‘politics of gold mining’ as a factor in the rise of the groups.

Another source claimed that ‘there is ‘cut-throat competition’ amongst miners. Some of the attacks were partly instigated by traditional rulers involved in the illicit mining with a view to displacing their subjects’.

According to Desert Herald Newspaper: The solid mineral resources in the state have been hijacked by highly placed people in the state including traditional rulers… mining has continued to arouse and attract local and international attentions with regard to mining and explor a tion of the s e va st deposits in the state…considering the fact that illegal mining is the main business of the traditional rulers and highly placed people in the state…who are always at loggerheads with other 42 artisanal miners.

On the other hand some people see the armed groups-illicit miners’ alliance as ‘protective’. Mining is naturally a peaceful economic venture. The miners could hardly operate under conflict situation; therefore, the miners pay money as ‘protection levy’ to the armed groups in return for protection and continued exploitation of the resource.

At the peak of the conflict in 2018, local and foreign miners were still found peacefully operating in the various deadly forests. There has never been record of either abduction or killing of these foreign illicit miners in the state.

This is one of the reasons why the locals see the conflict as nothing but international conspiracy to displace and deny them access to their ‘God Given’ natural resources. The Federal Government’s ban of all mining operations in the state since 2018 cloud probably be in response to this concern.

The State Government on its own part suspended some traditional rulers for allegedly supporting the armed groups and engaging in illicit mining activities. Whether or not any or all of these hypotheses hold, one factor that contributed to the escalation of the conflict was the activities of non-state security operatives like the Vigilante Group of Nigeria, Yan-Banga and Yan-Sakai.

The operations of Vigilante Group of Nigeria (VGN), pushed the armed groups out of towns and villages to the highly ungoverned spaces, where they established different camps in the numerous forests across the state.

The VGN attacked, maimed and even engaged in extrajudicial killings of accused persons. Most of their victims were, unfortunately, Fulani; leading to the ethnic profiling of the pastoralists. The Yan-Sakai are believed to have committed more atrocities than the vigilante group.

The memory of how the Yan-Sakai used to storm Shinkafi market to gruesomely kill suspected bandits is still fresh in people’s minds.

An informant confirmed that they had never seen a worst insecurity, where Yan-Sakai cut human beings into pieces in the market square and burnt the pieces into ashes without any fear.

It was only after the first and second public execution of the suspected bandits that the entire community frowned at the act. Therefore, both the VGN and their Yan-Sakai supporters contributed to the escalation of the conflict.

Dr. Murtala Ahmed Rufai