The Special Adviser to the Sokoto state Governor on security, Colonel Ahmed Usman has advocate for amnesty to bandits who willingly surrendered their arms. The retired military officer also spoke on the state of insecurity in the state and how best to tackled it.
Q: why is it that, the fight against banditry lingers despite consistent measures put in place by succeeding governments?
Ans: One of the biggest global security issues that is threatening global peace is the proliferation of illegal and light weapons (SALW).
This poses a greater challenge to Sub-Saharan countries with Nigeria inclusive because it gives non-state-actors, especially terrorists and bandits the impetus to continue unleashing terror on our respective communities because they have unfiltered access to arms.
According to United Nations, no less than one billion small and light arms are in used worldwide which continue to pose a serious threat to people all over the world. It was also estimated that, from 2010 to 2014 these weapons had caused almost 200,000 deaths annually from terrorism acts, inter-state conflicts and banditry among others criminal activities.
In our own case, there is issue of porous border. Most of the bandits terrorizing our communities have a links to foreign armed groups. Our border is so porous to the extend that, our border security cannot control influx of fire arms and foreign terrorist.
Q: Are you saying that, we cannot address banditry with porous border?
No, what I mean we need to effectively and sufficiently control our borders to complement our efforts in fighting the menace.
Q: How can we do that?
Ans- There is the need for government at all levels to work together and secure inter-state borders and our international borders through effective patrol and surveillance. We need to acquire and deploy modern technological devices at our borders, like a day and night camera systems, unmanned aerial systems and unattended ground sensors to support physical structures,scanners, fingerprinting devices among other devices should be mounted in our border to be able to detect weapons and suspicious movement.
And these technologies can also provide situational awareness at flash points and border locations.
Remember, improving security required developing a comprehensive border patrol and surveillance system as those people witj evil intention towards our country would continue to develop variety of strategies to escape authorities and gain illegal access to our country.
Additionally, security operatives at our border posts must work in synergy. They must shun inter-agency rivalry because they are all working for a common goal which is to protect and guard our boundaries.
And most importantly, there is the need for building resilience of border communities and engaging them in border management and control because smugglers are using their places for their nefarious activities. In the same vein, improved welfare and working conditions of law enforcement agencies would motivate them to give their best to the country. And lastly, there should be training and retraining of border operatives to be able to detect, identify and response to trans-border security threats and assess risks through intelligent among other.
Q- some people believe that, kinetic approach alone cannot not solve our security problems. What is your take on this?
Ans. They are quite right, because there is no war ever won by guns alone. Most of the wars you are hearing about ended up at the negotiating table. This is why even the Nigerian government are applying both kinetic and non-kinetic approaches in the fight against insurgents in the northeast, bandits In the northwest and separatists in the southeast.
And that Is why I always recommend amnesty programmes for those who voluntarily denounce insurgency or banditry and surrender their arms.
Q: Do you think traditional Ruler have a role to play in addressing insecurity in the country?
Yes, of course. They have a greater role to play. In the past, I mean during the colonial era, our traditional rulers had the power to deal with minor matters in their domains. They even have court where issues bordering on our tradition, religion and even governance such as herder-farmer conflict, none paying of tax, marital problems among other were being resolved. At that point in time, any stranger that visit their domains, the first he does was to present himself to the leader of that community who would interrogate him in order to know his mission in their area. But this is not the case now. A stranger will come to a place and stay for years without the traditional leader of the area is aware.
This is why some people are now advocating for a constitutional role for our traditional rulers because of the important of traditional institution in peace building and societal development. Religious and communities leaders should be also involved in peace building and maintenance in our respective areas. This is what we have been doing in Sokoto. We use to meet with traditional and communities’ leaders and other people that matter in our security meetings. In fact, His Excellency, Governor Ahmed Aliyu had inaugurated a powerful committee on security, comprising security operatives, traditional rulers and even religious leaders which meet regularly under the chairmanship of the deputy Governor, His Excellency, Engineer Idris Mohammed Gobir. It is as a result of our discussions, that the idea of establishing a state owned security outfit was discussed and adopted. And now we have Sokoto State Community Guard Corps whose mandate is to provide intelligence to our conventional security outfits.
Q- We know Sokoto is one of the state worst hit by insecurity, how is this impacting on the lives of People of the state?
Ans- This is a good question. Because people out there may not know the impact of insecurity on our social and economic life.
The Sokoto East Senatorial district, and some local government areas in the northern and southern districts of the state have been witnessing barbaric terrorism acts. The people in these area are living in perpetual fear because they can be attacked at any time.
Socio-conomic activities in villages are crippled by banditry to the extend that, in some places, one hardly see a single animal not even a hen. They were all rustled. If you want to be a target for attack keep a goat in your house.
The affected local government areas include, Sabon Birni, Isa, Gada, Illela, Rabah, Wurno, Gwadabawa, Goronyo, Silame, Binji, Tangaza, Gudu and Kebbe. Sokoto has 23 local government areas but 13 of them are affected by banditry.
These local governments produce different kind of food items, ranging from rice, millet, guinea corn, onion, water melon, garlic and ginger in commercial quantity. But this is disrupted by banditry. Many farmers abandoned their farms for fear of abduction or kill. Others are being forced to pay levy before they can work on their farmlands.
It is also estimated that, huge amount of money, running into hundreds of millions are being paid either as ransom or levies by the locals. Some of them lost their relatives because they could not raise the amount demanded by bandits as ransom. Many children are rendered orphans and thousands of people are rendered refugees in their own country.
Education is also affected as many schools were closed down in those areas, only those at the local government headquarters are functioning. Another annoying part of it is that, the bandits spare no children, women and elders in their attacks. If you can remember there was a time they attacked a commercial vehicles conveying people, including women and children and set the vehicle on fire. All the passengers were roasted to death.
You may recalled that, a prominent traditional Ruler in Sokoto was Abducted and gruesomely murdered by his abductors. And there was an entire family members, including husband, his mother, step mother, wife and sister who were kidnapped and their driver killed with his flesh used in feeding dogs by the bandits.
Similarly, on September 22, 2021, bandits attacked and killed 22 security operatives at Bukursuma village of Sabon Birni local government and displaced villages like Gatawa, Gangara all within the same week.
Honestly, banditry remains the biggest security threat in Sokoto and other states in the Northwestern region. Not too long ago, terrorist tagged as armed bandit attacked and killed 74 people and destroyed properties worth millions of Naira in different villages such as Garki where 25 persons were killed, Dan Aduwa 13, Kuzari 25, Lugu 12 and five each in Duhuwa and Musawa villages in Katsina state.
Q: As a Security Adviser to a sitting Governor and retired army officer, what do you think should be done to rid these areas of banditry?
Ans- we know the federal government in collaboration with the state government and security agencies are doing their best to restore peace in our region. You were the people who reported the matching order given to the Ministers of Defence and Security Chiefs to relocate to Sokoto and ensure normalcy returned in our banditry infested communities.
And I have been saying it over and over again that, Sokoto state government is very committed to this fight against bandits and other forms of criminality in the state. Just last two weeks, hundreds of motorcycles and patrol vehicles were released to local government areas for the use of our local security guards which was established recently by the state government. This is in addition to other support given to conventional security agencies like the police, army, Civil Defence among others. A total of 70 brand new patrol vehicles, including Toyota Buffalo and Hilux were distributed to them. Similarly, brand new motorcycles were given to DSS and the state government has continued to support them with other logistics that would ease their operations.
We also maintain a weekly security meetings where we review our security situation. But as you know, Governors despite being the Chief Security Officers in their state, cannot give order conventional security operatives, especially soldiers, only the President who is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces give them command.
But by and large we are grateful to Mr President and our armed forces because their ongoing intervention is yielding positive result. Just last week, one of the notorious Bandits’ kingpins by name Halilu Sububu and several of his foot soldiers were killed in a joint operation. And this operation is ongoing, we are hoping it would be sustained until we get rid of these bad elements.
However, to consolidate on our victory, there are certain things that need to done. First of all, the government need to fish out different saboteurs in the police, military, civilians and other security agencies who sell or hire out firearms to bandits and order criminal elements or divulge confidential information to them. There is also the need for those small, small villages to be merged and form a big city. This will enable the government to provide them with social amenities and even create police outposts which can be able to responds quickly to any threats.
Furthermore, there is also the need for peace building initiatives. Government should ensure even distribution of wealth. And political groups must work together to promote peace and peaceful coexistence among their people.
There is the need for equal treatment of citizenry by Government and government must find a way of resolving herders-farmers conflicts by providing grazing areas for herders. Additionally, there should be an awareness campaigns to sensitize the public on the need to contribute their quarters towards having a peaceful and secured country. They can do that by reporting any suspicious elements in their areas no matter how close that person is to them. Because the issue of security is everybody business. It cannot be left to the government alone.
The Civil Societies and Human Right Organizations should collaborate with security agencies to ensure human rights are protected during operations. There is also the need for general improvement of living standards of Nigerians, particularly those living in border areas. This will encourage them to provide credible intelligence to security operatives as regards to suspicious movement in their communities. Public support is also an important factor in advancing efforts to improve security in the country.
Political will is very necessary in fighting insurgency and criminal elements in the country. Government at all levels need to be committed to this.
Nigerians should support our troops and other security agencies with fervent prayers for their success. And lastly, Members of military and other security operatives must clearly define their duties and skills to avoid errors and there is the need for the recruitment of more security personnel, especially, Immigration, Customs and police.
The Federal government must do everything possible to secure our borders and this can be achieved by improving surveillance and deployment of advanced technologies because we have the financial capability to do so.
Establishment and Operationalisation of full-fledged Ministries of Security across the Seven States of the North West devoid of political interference and bureaucratic bottleneck, with increased capacity, a well harmonized structure, roles and responsibilities and standard operating procedures to facilitate synergy of response and improved coordination in the region is equally necessary.