Insecurity: Shehu Sani Accuses Northern Leaders Of Hypocrisy, Politicising Bloodshed

Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has accused northern political elites of hypocrisy over the current wave of banditry and terrorism, saying many of them deliberately kept silent throughout the eight-year administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking in Kaduna on Tuesday while receiving leaders of Open Heart Foundation and Women Empowerment Centre on a courtesy visit, Sani said the North could not  defeat insecurity with a divided house and urged citizens to stop celebrating the killing of soldiers or using the blood of victims as a tool to capture power in 2027.

Sani accused some northern leaders of seeing the current resurgence of attacks as the best opportunity to remove President Bola Tinubu, warning that the blood of innocent people should not be used as chess pieces for political ambition.

Sani also dismissed as ‘false and ridiculous’ the claim by ex-governor Nasir El-Rufai that the Kaduna State government under Governor Uba Sani paid N1 billion to bandits.

According to Shehu Sani, El-Rufai was the architect, engineer and author of appeasing bandits with cash transfers during his eight-year tenure.

He recalled that the former governor once admitted to engaging in conditional cash transfers to bandits, a revelation that, according to him, led to the arrest of journalist Luka Biniyat at the time.

Sani recounted Kaduna’s dark security chapter under El-Rufai from 2015 to 2023, describing Southern and Central Kaduna as slaughterhouses where bandits operated with impunity, unchallenged.

The former lawmaker said Kaduna State witnessed some of its worst security tragedies under El-Rufai, citing the Kaduna-Abuja train attack, the Greenfield University abductions, and the kidnapping and killing of students of the Federal College of Forestry Mechanisation, Bethel Baptist High School, and several other institutions.

Challenging El-Rufai to provide proof of his allegations against the current administration, the former lawmaker said, “If he has images or videos showing cash being handed to bandits, he should make them public”.

“The same people who are shouting today slept for eight years when schools were emptied, churches and mosques attacked, and parents sold houses to pay ransom because our brother was in power”.

He praised Governor Uba Sani for building bridges between the Muslim North and Christian South of Kaduna, reducing ethno-religious crises and achieving comparative peace despite not controlling the military or police.

Sani further stated that, despite the challenges, President Tinubu has performed better in terms of security than the Buhari administration.

“Key security positions, Minister of Defence, Minister of State for Defence, National Security Adviser,  are held by northerners. The Chief of Defence Staff, until recently, was from Kaduna. Yet some people want us to believe nothing is being done”.

Sani challenged northern governors and traditional rulers to convene an emergency summit on insecurity, the almajiri system, out-of-school children and poverty instead of merely celebrating political anniversaries.

“The terrorists killing us in the North-East are not from Congo or Egypt, they are northerners speaking Kanuri. The bandits in the North-West are Fulani from our villages speaking Hausa and Fulfulde. A region of over 120 million people is being held hostage by less than 5,000 criminals. When will the North sit down and solve its own problem?” he asked.

The further said, “America will threaten, but history shows they will never sacrifice their soldiers for us. The solution lies in funding and equipping our military and uniting as Muslims and Christians to face a common enemy”.

He warned that the resurgence of attacks ahead of 2027 was not coincidental, urging politicians to seek power through ballots, not through the blood of school children and soldiers.