Emerging pictures of severe insecurity bedevilling Kaduna State and its neighbours, such as Zamfara, Katsina, Niger, Sokoto and Kebbi, suggest that terrorist outlaws have firmly established a comfort zone of control. They are now sharing power and sovereignty with the Federal Republic of Nigeria, almost unchallenged.
According to Agence France Presse, AFP, a report prepared for the United Nations disclosed that 17 people were recently massacred in Layin Danauta village in Birnin Gwari, Kaduna State, by bandit terrorists who recently gathered a great force after joining up with Ansaru and Al Qaeda jihadist terrorists.
According to the source, the bandits recently resorted to extorting illegal gold miners of their ill-gotten precious metals. This resulted in a revolt by the miners who killed the bandit leader in a clash. This prompted a reprisal by the bandits who came in the night and slaughtered the 17 people, injured many others and took scores of the local residents into captivity,
The fight here was between two sets of outlaws, and the Nigerian armed forces, police and security agencies were nowhere mentioned! This paints a picture of the ungoverned spaces of Kaduna and environs given up to lawbreakers to operate at will and without fear of government.
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Two great ironies are at play here. The Kaduna State Government is one of the governments that believe in negotiating with these armed groups who attack, kill, abduct indigenes for ransom. Indeed, the state government last year brokered a "peace deal" with the bandits. There was initial widespread celebration in January 2025 that peace had returned, only for the situation to deteriorate.
This vindicates our unwavering stand that government should not negotiate with bandits. Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution states that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government. A state should not surrender its constitutional mandate to bandits as this only fortifies the criminals to come back with more terror. Negotiating and paying ransom is like pouring petrol on smouldering fire.
The second irony is that Kaduna remains the state with the highest number of military, police and security agencies' installations, followed by Lagos and Ogun states. Only the Federal and Kaduna State governments can explain why these institutions set up to protect Nigerians sit by while helpless Nigerians are being massacred and dehumanised by bush-dwelling terrorists.
We call on the Office of the National Security Adviser, ONSA, and the Kaduna State Government to abandon the strategy of cuddling bandits and terrorists through negotiations and deals. We must focus strongly on flushing them out of Nigeria and regaining our full sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The current appeasement attitude of leadership towards these jihadist-inspired groups such as bandits, Ansaru, Boko Haram, Fulani militants is a show of accommodation. That is treasonable and unacceptable!
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