Katsina State Governor, Aminu Bello Masari, says lack of education and influx of criminals from some North African countries are some of the major causes of kidnapping and banditry in the North West Zone of the country.
Masari who spoke when he appeared on News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum on Sunday said although there were ongoing efforts to tackle insecurity in the state, the current situation had prevented farmers from accessing their farmlands.
”What we met as cattle rustling has turned into banditry and insurgency which are depriving people, especially those living in the border area of the forests which are very fertile, from access to their farms, drastically affecting their source of livelihood,” he said.
“They have lost their ploughing cattle which they used to plough the land.
“We have infiltration from the Niger Republic, Mali which has very large ungoverned spaces and you know the problem in Libya has unleashed arms and ammunition on sub-Saharan Africa.
“And we have to accept that within these areas, Nigeria is the richest and an attraction for all forms of criminality and kidnapping.
”Even ISWAP will want to at least stay in the North West to institute family here and but are fighting day and night to ensure that it doesn’t happen. We are working night and day to make sure that it doesn’t become a permanent feature.
“And again there is an issue of drugs, because these young men that the bandits are using to carry out these attacks, they give them all forms of hard drugs and intoxicants before they work on them.
He said the governor from the geo-political zone had work out modalities on how to end insurgency, adding that part of which is the training of about 3,500 vigilante members.
Masari said the major problem the governors now faced was the issue of selected kidnapping.
“They (bandits) have moved a step further by going to town to kidnap a member of the family. That is the stage we are dealing with now.
“But for me, there are no more innocent people living in the forests. When we started there were innocent people but today, there are very few innocent people there.
” If I meet these innocent people, I will hold them, it is either they are being supported by their children who are thieves or criminals, or women who cannot do otherwise.
“Some of the women having nowhere to go will want to stay and hope for the best.
”Eventually, she becomes a bandit or gives birth to a bandit, so for me, there are no more innocent people in the forests.”