Olayomi Koiki
At least six people have been killed in an attack by terrorists locally dubbed as bandits in Nigeria, a local news outlet reported, citing residents.
The assailants on Tuesday reportedly attacked a Mobile Police (Mopol) base in Garagi, Yartsamiyar Jino Village, Kankara Local Government Area of the northwestern Katsina State, and killed four security operatives and two civilians. One officer was also injured.
The terrorists also cart away the officers’ rifles during the incident, according to local news outlet Daily Trust.
The attackers razed classrooms at the primary school in Tsamiyar Jino, which had been used as a camp by the security forces,” a resident who pleaded anonymity said.
The Katsina State Police Command’s spokesman ASP Abubakar Sadiq Aliyu did not respond to a request for comment.
– Insecurity and violence in Nigeria –
For more than a decade, civilians in Nigeria have faced multiple security threats and risk of atrocities as result of attacks, kidnappings and extortion by various non-state armed groups.
Since the start of 2024 civilians have faced intensified violence across Nigeria, and near-daily attacks by armed groups resulting in kidnappings and other abuses against civilians.
Armed groups and gangs, including so-called “bandits,” have – for many years – perpetrated widespread atrocities, including murder, rape, kidnapping, organized cattle-rustling and plunder. Armed herdsmen are also destroying vast swaths of farmland, prompting many farmers to abandon their land out of fear of attack.
In August, the Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said insecurity in Nigeria is weaponised by politicians for political and selfish reasons.
A Nigerian soldier, Suleiman S., also alleged that the government’s practice of paying ransoms to terrorists – dubbed as bandits in the country was hindering the military’s ability to effectively combat them.He urged the public to redirect their blame from the Nigerian Army to the government, emphasising that soldiers are constrained by orders and cannot take independent action.
The soldier said the military has the capability to eradicate bandits, particularly in hotspots like Zamfara State forest within a week if given the necessary orders.
He expressed frustration that the military’s potential is being wasted due to a lack of direction from leadership, whom he accused of profiting from the ongoing crisis.
Nigerian authorities are not going to arrest Boko Haram terrorists, bandits, and other criminals because they were created for political purposes, human rights activist Omoyele Sowore had alleged in September.
Speaking when he appeared on Voice of The People FM, Sowore alleged that government officials have links with the criminals, using them to gain power and later protecting them.