Releasing 70 detained bandits: Kano, other states will be in big trouble if …, Kurfi, Katsina elder, warns

 •Says politicians use abductors during elections

By Kennedy Mbele

Katsina State government has come under scrutiny over  plans to release about 70 

detained persons suspected of involvement in banditry. The move is being presented as 

part of efforts to consolidate an ongoing peace deal with alleged repentant bandits operating across several local government areas of the state. 

Government officials said the initiative was linked to community-based peace arrangements aimed at reducing violence and securing the release of kidnapped victims.

The proposal has, however, sparked widespread public outrage. Many Nigerians, civil society groups, and security commentators have condemned the plan, arguing that freeing suspects already undergoing prosecution undermines the rule of law and denies justice to victims of years of killings, abductions, and destruction linked to banditry in the North-West.

 Critics warn that such concessions could embolden criminal groups and weaken public confidence in the justice and security systems.

The controversy has also drawn national attention, with senior federal security officials cautioning against negotiations with armed groups. Opponents of the Katsina initiative insist that lasting peace can only be achieved through accountability, disarmament, and effective law enforcement, rather than releasing suspects as part of negotiations, especially amid persistent insecurity in the region.  The Convener of Katsina Security Community Initiative, Dr. Bashir Kurfi, in this interview, speaks on the matter, warning that neighbouring states would be in trouble.

Talk to us as someone who is not just familiar with this but also invested in Katsina as an indigene. What do you make of the move to release 70 detained bandits?

 I think this move, one would say, is very unfortunate and also very dangerous, even for the entire nation. A situation where you release hardened criminals detained on the orders of the court is dangerous. In most cases, those who are in custody have unbailable offences because these offences deal with rape, arson and murder. Now, to say that under any configuration somebody comes up to say that these people can be freed, I say it is too dangerous. Also, I will be surprised if any chief judge who has a career would get involved in this mess. Therefore, this issue of releasing them, because I have seen some of the statements of government saying that anywhere in the world where you go into war, you also can have an exchange of prisoners, is misguided.

The people abducted were not prisoners. They were abducted in their homes. And if the bandits are saying that injustice was done to them, the people you have kidnapped are not police, they are not government officials, they are not politicians. Quite a number of them are peasants. How would somebody say “exchange of prisoners” in the first place? They went and abducted them from their homes, kidnapped them, raped them and took them away. Now, let me give you an example from my hometown. There was a time when bandits went to somebody’s house. After they were released, they came to my house and gave me a full report. I also went to the bush and participated in the operation. So nobody can tell me stories. Now, when they came to this lady’s house, her husband was not around. They met the lady with her baby and told her to follow them to the bush. When she was about to go, she told them she had twins. One of the bandits took one of the twins on his shoulder without any clothes. That baby was two months old. Where was her husband? Her husband was a theatre nurse. He was in the hospital saving the lives of some other women. Now, as they were going out, her five-year-old son held her leg and said he had to follow her. There were three of them. They had to pay five million naira. That criminal who did that, with this piece of nonsense, when people see him coming into town and going to the market, how will they feel?

 But many people think this is a necessary evil that could bring lasting peace…

 There is no necessary evil here. For somebody to even contemplate that is highly irresponsible. There are dangers that this will bring. By the time they are in prison, they will also meet hardened criminals who will partake in their criminality. And when you release them, they will go to other neighbouring states. I think Kano will be in big trouble when these people are released.

 You think this could snowball to Kano?

 It’s not going to snowball, it’s going there directly. They steal from Kano and come to our areas and pass with their loot. Then the convention is that these people say there is a peace deal here. So if they didn’t steal from an area but stole from somewhere else, they just pass through, and it becomes “not your business.” Earlier on, they couldn’t go to Kano because we blocked all the routes where they could come out of the bush. But now, without considering the consequences, like in the city of Kano, the danger we face, especially here in the North, is that the Boko Haram issue has dismantled the North-East’s market situation. It has destroyed Maiduguri’s activity as an international market route. Now you also want to attack Kano. By the time you finish with Kano, already affected as a commercial centre, in the past, on a daily basis, we would get over 50 vehicles coming from Sokoto to Kano.

 You don’t think this is by chance? You think this is by design?

 No, I think it is by design because I can’t see how somebody can explain it otherwise. They tell us it’s a community initiative. I am the chairman of the state community initiative. We met with the police. There was synergy. We were about to finish the centre until they came and dismantled all these Kano structures. So the question of community arises: which communities were consulted? If you are doing anything, there are people you should contact. Community people sit together, and if you are negotiating with anybody, you should put together a negotiating team.

 What is the government’s motivation?

 This needs to be studied. There is a wider implication that confuses me. When the current Minister of Defence was the Joint Chief of Staff, he said the army or any security agency should not be part of such negotiations. Now you have a state government making independent decisions without understanding the consequences. When the commissioner says the next step is to collect their guns, that shows ignorance. Negotiation is an international convention meant for serious people with ideological appeal. But a bandit is a lumpen element, as Karl Marx described, dangerous because they have no class identity. They are not farmers, so you can’t mobilise them with fertiliser. They are not workers, so you can’t mobilise them with wages. They have no centre of command. The king of banditry in Batsari is not answerable to the one in Dan Musa, Kankara or anywhere else.

 Do we understand whether deals are being cut with all bandit leaders?

 What I know is that they talk to some so-called bandit leaders. Even then, not all agree. Banditry is still ongoing. Three days ago, in my local government, they stole cows. Six days earlier, they stole about 20 cows.

 How does government benefit from this?

 From my experience, during elections, some politicians use bandit leaders. They collect ballot boxes from areas people can’t access. They give them to bandits, who fill and return them. For Nigerian politicians, their interest is political office, not the security of their people. Have you ever seen politicians across parties come together to say they are tired of bloodshed? No. Women come to my house daily with their husbands, narrating how they were raped, sometimes by 10 men. We have taken some to hospitals. Some were referred to VVF centres because of the damage done.

 Is there any form of amnesty that could work?

 No. Amnesty is not involved here. This is not serious. You don’t bring a murderer to sit with authority while he still has his gun. Disarmament is a professional process handled by experts, not politicians. How do you even verify the guns they surrender? Meanwhile, village heads and district heads are not living in their domains. Commissioners cannot spend a week in their hometowns.

 Who are the winners and losers?

 We are the losers. You cannot farm, graze, or go to the market. Seventy per cent of schools are closed. Some are occupied by bandits. The wider losers are Nigerian states. This shows the irresponsibility of northern elites who live in Abuja and Lagos while their people are killed daily. Southern elites should not be paying for this irresponsibility through security budgets.

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