How bandits terrorise Zamfara villagers

Governor Abdulaziz Yari had said about 160 people were killed and 6,000 cows rustled in the past three months. This is in addition to the abduction of ten women by the suspected robbers, and or cattle rustlers.Residents told Daily Trust reporter who visited the villages after series of attacks that they don’t sleep with their […]

Governor Abdulaziz Yari had said about 160 people were killed and 6,000 cows rustled in the past three months. This is in addition to the abduction of ten women by the suspected robbers, and or cattle rustlers.
Residents told Daily Trust reporter who visited the villages after series of attacks that they don’t sleep with their two eyes closed. Some of them say they sleep in nearby bushes.
Dozens of people have been killed in attacks on Zamfara villages carried out mostly by motorbike riding gang of robbers and cattle rustlers in the last two years.
Last month, nine vigilantes were killed by suspected cattle rustlers in Tsanu village in Zurmi local government area of the state. Any time they strike, the robbers claim they are on a vengeance mission on vigilante members who they accused of threatening their way of life.
In August 2011, 19 people were killed in Lingyado village of Maru local government area and in February and June 2012, 42 were gunned down in Birnin Magaji and Dagulbi respectively. Also in November last year,  20 were killed in Kabaro village in Dansadau district of Maru local government while 54 were massacred in Kizara village of Tsafe local government area in June this year.
These attacks preceded warnings issued by the gunmen to the Bawar Daji community in Anka local government area of the state last month, asking the residents to desist from cultivating lands in the surrounding forests.
Similar warning was issued to a construction company to vacate construction site or face consequences.
“We don’t feel safe because anytime these people can strike again. Presently they still attack neighbouring villages. So our people are fleeing their homes,” Aliyu Isah, a resident of Barebari village said.
Daily Trust’s investigations in three villages of Bare bari, Gidan Dangi And Farin Ruwa all in Bungudu local government indicated that the residents in these communities have deserted their homes and are taking refuge on surrounding rocks and trees.
In Bare bari village, few kilometers from Lingyado, half of the residents including the village head have fled their homes.
Mallam Abdullahi Yahaya is the elder brother of the village head and he told Daily Trust that ‘they don’t sleep in their homes’.
“We go into the nearby bush and sleep for fear of being attacked in the night because the last time they came they were in hundreds, and heavily armed. They set our homes ablaze and fled. We only sleep in our homes in the day time,” he said.
Daily Trust gathered that the village head and his family had fled to Jibia local government, in neighbouring Katsina state for safety. He is said to have been particularly threatened by the bandits.
The situation was more pathetic in the Gidan Dangi village. More than 100 households have deserted the community. Some few individuals who came to pack their belongings spoke to our reporter.
 “My husband is currently at Magami town and he sent me here to pack our belongings and meet him there. I can tell you that we will never return here again,” Sa’adiyya Sale, a mother of three said.
In Gidan Dangi community more than 40 cows were said to have been stolen in the last one year. Mallam Tasi’u Samaila whose father was robbed and shot on leg said: “We are disturbed and we don’t even know what to do; this has been our abode since the time of our fore fathers; and you know it is not easy to just leave overnight, but there is nothing we can do. As long as we want to remain alive, we have to leave.”
The situation is the same at Farin Ruwa village, a community were the night marauders invaded more than four times in the last one year.
In this community Daily Trust spotted one resident called Mallam Mamuda Idris preparing to leave for what he called ‘fear of the unknown.’ He said: “they raided our houses last year; they entered my house and asked me to lead them to Alhaji Altine’s residence; before I responded they hit me with a gun on head.”
The village head of Farin Ruwa Alhaji Shuaibu Adamu who was visibly shaken told our reporter, however, that he was not leaving the community. “Let them come and kill me here, but I’m not stopping any one from leaving to anywhere he feels is safer. There was a time that more than one hundred women and children took shelter in my house when they were sacked by robbers from the neighbouring village of Kango.”
The village dwellers say they have lost hope of any possible government intervention in their troubles. Many of them spoken to said they have cried enough but that their voices appears to have fallen on deaf ears.
Daily Trust learnt that even members of the vigilante group are dodging their homes at nights. They fear reprisal attack by the robbers.
One of the vigilantes who spoke to our correspondent on condition of anonymity said the robbers do identify and kill them because they consider them as enemies.
In Birnin Magaji Local government, several people were killed in the last three months including one businessman Alhaji Barau Kokiya. Kokiya was killed earlier last week in his village Gusami.
Our reporter stumbled over a vigilante member in nearby forest patrolling the villages in the local government on his motor bike. When accosted he said: “My name is Bello Mashagiwa and I’m patrolling this forest because we the local vigilantes have fallen prey to robbers. I’m just recovering from a gunshot, but I’m ready to die protecting myself and other communities.”
He said suspected cattle rustlers herded away his 33 cows and 15 sheep and left him with nothing for a living. He said however that the council chairman usually gives them monthly stipends of N5000.
Chairman of the vigilante group in Birnin Magaji local government, Abdu Bugu Da gora, said though his members are in a dangerous state, the situation has never made them to loom back in the avowed determination to fight the robbers.
However, an elder in the local government Alhaji Yunusa Adamu attributed the success the robbers are recording in their operations to the very bad road networks in the local government. He said they couldn’t be reached easily because the road linking villages are mostly not motorable.
Zamafara State commissioner of information Alhaji Ibrahim Birnin Magaji said the state government is liaising with all the stakeholders to end the incessant attacks on rural dwellers.
“I want you to understand that the issue of security is a confidential matter as such we can’t explain our tactics on the pages of newspapers because these hoodlums have informants who read and reveal these issues to them. But it will soon come to an end Insha- Allah,” he said.
When contacted also, the state police command through its Public Relations Officer DSP Lawal Abdullahi said the command is working day and night to end the menace of the bandits. He said the commnd has arrested a good number of cattle rustlers and also recovered hundreds of cows, stressing that they are recording success in the operations.