Katsina is considered a frontline state in matters relating to the activities of terrorists masquerading as bandits and cattle rustlers. The state, which is also home to the nation’s number one citizen, under normal circumstances, ought to be the safest in the country. But that is not the case as, consistently, these criminals throw filth in the face of the security agencies and call to question their capabilities or lack of them.
The criminals, unfortunately, in our considered opinion, have continued to hold sway in spite of the efforts of the state government part of which was, and still is, essentially pacifist through the signing of memoranda of understanding (MoUs) as well as appeasement. That the situation is worsening is proof that the criminals understand force as the only language and that the government’s approach to the matter is defective, if not flawed.
Perhaps, it is pertinent to conjecture that, realising the inadequacies of the approach state operators decide to adopt in finding solution to the crisis, the vigilante groups, often ill-equipped, may have been inspired to emerge as counterforce to the activities of these anti-social elements. Their act of patriotism is beginning to turn fatal with the killing of over 100 of them by the terrorists who are better equipped and motivated.
Another aspect of the report, alarming as its unbelievable, of what is happening in those rural areas is that the people are being disarmed by the security agencies and the inferior, locally made guns they use to offer some modicum of resistance to the onslaught of the bandits, are taken away from them thereby leaving them at the mercy of the marauders.
This editorial is aimed at drawing the attention of the public to the price these men functioning as vigilantes, almost unrecognised and unremunerated, are prepared to pay to secure the community in which they live in the absence of reliable state operators who, to all intents, seemingly overwhelmed, have resigned to despondency and buck passing.
According to reports, the vigilantes had mobilised to go in search of their animals taken away by the criminals. The intention must have been to recover the animals rustled by those criminals. Sadly, they were ambushed and killed in cold blood.
As is usual when such dastardly acts are perpetrated by sundry criminal elements, officialdom and other political actors resort to unhelpful platitudes and expressions of ill-felt commiserations that do nothing to assuage the pains the victims’ loved ones feel. Actually, in this case, some of them even complained that “we have lost hope, we are left on our own. Those who are responsible for protecting our lives and properties have not done their work”.
In the midst of this tragedy, the police who ought to be at the forefront of smoking out and neutralising the criminals are busy sitting pretty in their offices waiting for update, maybe from the criminals themselves or probably from the dead vigilantes who died doing their (police) job.
This is part of the sad commentary on policing in the country that has encouraged the bandits to continue to do the daring because they know that they will get away with it. The police in Katsina were waiting to be updated on the attack that they should have prevented in the first place.
For the umpteenth time, we are restating that what the people need are security, protection of their lives and property and not condolence messages when the harm is already done.
In our view, the government must see what happened in Katsina as a wake-up call to take the issue of security in the rural areas across the country as a matter of utmost urgency. During that gruesome incident, in that North western state, women were kidnapped and taken away as booty.
We will not stop reiterating our call for state police as one of the ways of checking the menace of these bandits as well as other criminal activities in the rural areas.
In the meantime, vigilante groups are proving to be capable of providing the security cover the people in the rural areas need. All the authorities need to do is to incentivise and equip them to boost their morale. This will include training them on self-defence, weapon handling and how to react to challenges that are life-threatening in nature.
Above all else, all the stakeholders – the traditional rulers, the people and the police must pull their resources together to defeat these monsters before they devour the communities. Intelligence gathering is very essential in this regard as actionable intelligence, properly managed, would have pre-empted the ambush that cost the lives of those vigilantes
