Armed Robbery Spreads Tales And Pains in Zamfara

The hoodlums, numbering about 24 and armed with automatic weapons, had laid a daylight ambush in the morning between Jangeme and Tofa villages waiting for the group of vehicles. Their targets were dozens of merchants traveling to Kano to buy goods. Forewarned by past incidents, businessmen traveling along the axis do so under police escort […]

The hoodlums, numbering about 24 and armed with automatic weapons, had laid a daylight ambush in the morning between Jangeme and Tofa villages waiting for the group of vehicles. Their targets were dozens of merchants traveling to Kano to buy goods.

Forewarned by past incidents, businessmen traveling along the axis do so under police escort and for a while (that is before last Monday) the arrangement had been paying off.

Malam Sani was inside one of the vehicles, as was his friend and two little daughters. He said the incident occurred around 8am, recalling that as the convoy approached the hoodlums, they did not hesitate to rain torrents of bullets on the occupants. “They allowed us to drive past the first roadblock without a challenge. But as we got to the middle of what appeared like an ambush, they opened fire,” he said.

The local businessman was carrying his friend’s youngest daughter on his laps. A bullet pierced through his left arm and struck the 2-year-old in the stomach – disemboweling her. She died some hours later, at the hospital. Equally, her sister, who was one year older and seated by her father, was caught in the indiscriminate firing and killed instantly.

The highest toll was however inflicted on the police, which lost all of its four men on the escort team. The robbers, according to Zamfara State Police Commissioner, Tambari Yabo Muhammad, were extremely merciless at executing the “unprovoked” attack as they chased one of the officers, (an inspector who escaped into the bush) and gunned him down.

Those killed, according to police source, included Inspector Lawwali Ibrahim Mada, Sergeant Hassan Bako, Corporal Dominic Maiwada and Constable Yahaya Ibrahim.

The police commissioner said the attack was “upsetting” to the command because his men were attacked while on motion, not when manning a checkpoint.

Yet, after perpetrating the killings, the hoodlums turned their eyes on the pockets of their remaining victims. Malam Sani, who was already nursing a gunshot wound, was also robbed. He was to however cut his loss by half by dint of some cleverly act, and good luck.

“After they asked us out of the vehicle, one of the armed men beckoned me to bring out what was in my pocket,” he recalled.

The victim, who was admitted at Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gusau, recounted further: “I was lucky that before embarking on the journey,  I divided my money into two and kept N80,000 each in two side pockets.

I obliged him by handing him the content of one pocket. Then, I quickly threw myself to the ground, feigning to be hurt by bullet injury, before he could scrutinize me.”

The armed robbers also collected large sums of money from other travelers. “But some people who ran into the bush were not robbed,” he said. Sunday Trust gathered that the hoodlums carted away all the guns belonging to the slain policemen and vandalized their patrol vehicle before fleeing into nearby bushes.

Eyewitnesses said the attackers operate on eight motorcycles, with each bike assigned to three men.

Malam Sani may be happy surviving the bloody armed robbery attack and salvaging part of his means of livelihood from its hungry teeth.  But the mere thought of those helpless two little girls and the policemen who had to pay the supreme price on account of giving them protection, could rob him of that joy.

So, many citizens of Zamfara State have been haunted for the better part of this year, by spate of violent armed robbery attacks that have claimed dozens of souls so far.

Tracing the genesis of last Monday attack, CP Yabo, disclosed that hoodlums frequently targeted commuters, particularly businessmen plying the Jangeme-Magami road on market days to rob.

Worried by the situation, the villagers sought for police protection, which culminated in an arrangement where officers are drafted to provide escort to vehicles on market days. The police commissioner said the command was pained by the attack on its men on that fateful day and vowed to arrest the attackers.

He said measures taken to ensure success in that direction include the deployment of four units of regular and mobile policemen to comb the bushes that the armed robbers escaped into after committing the crime.

Monday’s attack appeared to have touched a large section of the population in the state as it kept slipping into and dominating discourses in both private and public fora throughout the week. But one of the strongest reactions it generated came from the state government through the state acting governor, Deputy Governor Ibrahim Wakkala Muhammad, who described the murder of the policemen as inhuman and demanded that the culprits be tried by Shari’a courts, if caught.

Visibly disturbed, Wakkala asked members of the public to seek Allah’s intervention through prayers over rampant armed robbery cases that are past becoming a daily occurrence in the state.

While condoling the state police command, he encouraged officers not to falter in the discharge of their duties of protecting citizens because of the death of their colleagues and assured them of government’s continuous support and assistance so that the tide of crimes could be stemmed.

The rising cases of violent crimes and daring nature of the criminals have been traumatizing many people in Zamfara. Just about a week before the recent daylight attack – which in itself was strange – the state police commissioner disclosed that he was attacked by daredevil armed robbers on his way back to Gusau, after seeing off the state governor, Alhaji Abdul’aziz Yari Abubakar, to his home town of Talata Mafara.

The state police boss however escaped the attack.

Similarly, the state government has expressed reservations at the response security agencies in the state give to criminal activities, when Governor Yari almost declared his support for creation of state police, arguing that a security outfit under the control of the state could be challenged on their seeming failures as against the present situation where state governors cannot query security bosses in their states over apparent security lapses.

Yari, who was addressing a press conference at the government house in Gusau, also lamented a situation where his administration has donated millions of naira and vehicles to security agencies after an attack during the Ramadan by suspected armed robbers claimed 10 lives in Guru and Tungar Baushe villages in Maru local government, in order to curb the menance, only to be confronted with the news of another attack, this time claiming 19, in Lingyado village, in the same local government area.

It was in the wake of the Lingyado attack that the state governor appealed for deployment of patrol helicopter from the Police Force headquarters in Abuja, which spent weeks hovering over bushes that are suspected to be providing cover for the armed robbers.

Reason often cited by security agencies for inability to prevent attacks on some communities or apprehend perpetrators of such attacks when they happen, is the regitative nature of the terrain, which criminals use to their advantage in escaping arrest.

Similarly, they cite absence of police stations around the areas like Lingyado, Guru and Tungar Baushe.

The attacks on Guru, Tungar Baushe and Lingyado were the deadliest witnessed in Zamfara State this year and the highest in casualty after road traffic accidents and deaths from lead poisoning last year, claiming 29 persons combined, investigations have shown.

They were said to be triggered by an attack from vigilante members on suspected armed robbers in several communities in Dansadau Emirate from Maru Local Government Area. Alleged community-sanctioned extra-judicial killings of the suspected Fulani armed robbers forced them to flee to other states and neighbouring countries, where they regrouped and launched reprisal attacks on their hunters.

Security experts have attributed the early attempt by the communities to address the real or perceived threat posed by the robbers by taking law into their own hands to be an explicit manifestation of loss of confidence in the justice system, which could have arisen from the system’s  failure to punish criminals.

Last week, a scenario almost similar as that of Lingyado unfolded in Gidan Mai’aiki in Wonako west district of Gusau Local Government Area, when villagers organized themselves and repelled an attack by Fulani herdsmen, killing two of the attackers in the process.

Sunday Trust gathered that the community had before the recent encounter with the herdsmen, endured years of invasion and destruction of their farmlands by nomads, whose herds were said to be in hundreds.

Common among the atrocities committed by them, was feed their cattle on crops and threatened and attacks farmers who resisted the affront.

But when they came to the area this time around, in addition to having their herds destraying cotton, sorghum and other crops, they attacked one of the farmers, with machetes and left him for dead in the bush, head of Gidan Mai’aiki village, Malam Sabongari Yakuba, said.

The traditional ruler further explained that when the Fulani men discovered that their victim did not die, and had rather, managed to return to the village, they trailed him there and threatened war on the village.

Some of the herdsmen took positions around the town and rained AK-47 rifle fire on its inhabitants, said Malam Yakuba, who added that hundreds of the villagers (mostly women and children) fled to neighbouring communities in the wake of the ugly development.

It was while the attack was still on that men in the village organized themselves and launched a counter attack leading to the killing of two of the attackers.

Residents of the area told Sunday Trust that the cattle rearers acted with impunity and always bragged that “if they killed a farmer, nothing would be done,” which gave the villagers a feeling that their attackers were above the law.

“If you kill a Fulaniman or his cow after they (his cattle) have destroyed your farm, you will be promptly arrested and punished. But when they kill your men or destroy your farm, they go scot-free. More than once, we have succeeded in arresting them or their cattle, only to see them released immediately,” said Malam Yakuba.

There seemed to be no place, township or village, which does not experience armed robbery and criminal attacks in Zamfara State, with the acts more prevalent in the rural areas. Similarly, the occurrence of the incidence indicates that nearly all parts of the state are affected, except for the fact that the cause or objects of the attacks may vary from one locality to the other.

Recently, the scourge of robbery attacks became pronounced in Kaura Namoda Local Government Area, to an unbearable rage that prompted the traditional rulers to enjoin people in the area to pray to God for solution.

That was still when, inside the capital Gusau, criminals were robbing residents of their belongings. One of the victims of the armed robbery attack in Gusau was the chairman of the state chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Barrister Bello Umar, who lost undisclosed amount of money to the criminals, after they have stormed his house late in the night.

The police, according to Yabo, have put in place strategies to combat the growing crime rate in the state and have recorded some successes.

But he nonetheless pointed out that, halting the menace of armed robbery, especially in the rural areas will require collective approach from all concerned.

Yabo suggested for communities where there is no police presence to make arrangements for defending themselves, which he said is acceptable by law. In addition to that, the state police boss emphasized on the need for reporting suspicious activities to the police and for giving information to the police.

Investigations by Sunday Trust showed that crimes, especially of armed robbery, have dropped significantly in areas where mineral deposits have been discovered and mining of gold is in progress.

Traditional rulers in Bukkuyum Local Government Area, recounted how number of highway robbers reduced sharply after mining activities were opened in Dogon Dajin Sarkin Noma and other places within the locality.

The escalation of armed robbery attacks in the country, according to Dr. Umar Aliyu of Sociology Department of Bayero University Kano (BUK) symptomized “structural problem” affecting the society, which he identified to be cheaply precipitated by “corruption, poverty and power socialization from home, unemployment” among other social problems.

The sociologists, who also noted that the trend is becoming bigger and more complex by the day, however expressed doubt if the nation has a workable solution in sight.

“There is increasing breakdown of law and order such that we have problems of conforming to the values of our communities, of our religions, of our heritage and connected to it is the issue of increasing population, he stressed.”

Population growth, he said, brought up a category of people in the society who have no clear idea what their focus should be. Such people are either school dropouts or persons who failed to secure employment, given the slightest opportunity, they take to crimes.

Short-term measures for addressing unemployment in the country can be by improving school system and introducing social security, while long-term, measures should include involving all stakeholders to map out what the country wants to be in the future “It seems the government is making efforts along that way, by creating job opportunities for youths.” Though, he observed, “it is not actually in large scale”

Dr Umar described the continuous attacks on law enforcement agents by robbery gangs as “very disturbing,” saying, because [when] those who are supposed to protect you are now under attack and this can be related to the issue of credibility. The question we should raise first is; do people still have confidence in the security system? Secondly, the issue of insecurity in the northeast has also exposed the police to attacks from individuals such as armed robbers, who may say if others are doing it we can also do it.”

He fears that if the police are incapacitated, individuals may take up arms to protect themselves, thereby plunging the country into anoarchy.