CSOs Urge Tinubu To Intervene In Zamfara Security Crisis

A civil society organisation, Zamfara Circle Community Initiative, has urged President Bola Tinubu to as matter of urgency take immediate and decisive action to address the security crisis in Zamfara State.

At a press conference held on Saturday in Gusau, the group expressed concerns over what it described as the frequent attacks on communities by bandits killing and displacing several people to destabilise the state.

The convener of the coalition, Dr Aminu Lawal, said that tension in Zamfara escalated sharply following the recent gruesome killing of 38 innocent people of Banga community who were in captivity for over four month and were massacred after collecting N50 million ransom.

They said the rise in insecurity which escalated across 14 local government areas of the state has seriously put Zamfara into dilemma and urgently needs federal government’s attention.

The coalition also cited the example of recent attacks on the Fegin Mahe community in Gusau local government area where the village was ransacked with over 5,000 people displaced, as well as the attacks on 11 communities in Bukkuyum local Government with over 50,000 people displaced.

There have been daily reports of killings and kidnappings which led speculations that some politicians against the interest of the state were involved.

According to the coalition, there are no deployed security personnel in over 80 percent of Zamfara hinterland were close to 5 million people reside. “This development has left the majority of the state’s populace at the mercy of the bandits leading to various communities to either dialogue with the bandits or resolve to defend themselves,” the group alleged.

They lamented that between January 2024 and last month, according to the data compiled by the Zamfara Circle Security Appraisal Committee (ZC-SAC), there are about 455 villages and communities that were attacked by armed bandits.

“Our data also indicated that there are about 3,216 people including farmers that were kidnapped with ransom being paid running into hundreds of millions of naira while over 230 people were killed by armed groups within the period,” they said.