Governor Aminu Masari has revealed that about 150 bandits’ camps existing in the forest of Katsina State are being dislodged as a result of the ongoing aggressive onslaught against them.
Masari said this when he was receiving the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed, on a one-day interactive session with the government and key players in the security sector of the state.
He said the fleeing bandits are relocating to where farmers have cultivated to steal their crops.
Masari, who traced the origin of the banditry bedevilling the region to 1891, said it started in Zamfara State when the Arabian traders who came to Katsina to trade were robbed of about 165 thousand pounds along the trade routes and has continued till the present day.
The Governor is optimistic that the strategy employed by the Northwest Governors led by him is yielding positive results.
He confirmed that the forest has become too hot for the bandits who are now fleeing to safer grounds, thereby putting the security agencies in the state on red alert.
According to Masari, the bandits are relocating to the fringes of the forest, where farmers were able to cultivate little crops, to harvest to quench hunger.
He, therefore, said contrary to opinions in some quarters, the banditry faced by the region has no religious or ethnic colourations.
He directed the security agencies to be ruthless against them and ruled out any issues of human rights for the bandits.
Masari said part of the efforts to balance the numbers of the bandits and to complement the shortage of manpower on the side of the security agencies, the state government is recruiting and training about 3,000 local vigilante members who will be trained by the police and other security agencies.
He, therefore, called for support from the Federal Government to enable them to put their best to sustain the tempo.
Lai Muhammed commended the Governor on his efforts to tackle the menace in the state, which is the reason for his visit, to appraise and get firsthand information whose briefs will be submitted to the President.
He also urged journalists to always give more positive reportage to the successes being recorded to win the war against the bandits rather than negativity.
The Emir of Katsina, Abdulmumin Usman, speaking on behalf of the Emir of Daura, Umar Farouk, enjoined the Minister to do more in the area of effective information dissemination, saying information is very vital.