President’s Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha Buhari, has encouraged security agents to go after bandits in Northern states, and see to the end of banditry.
The First Lady also said her Sunday Instagram post showing the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Ali Pantami, shedding tears during one of his sermons was about fearing God and not man.
“That is the Garden we shall give as their own to those of Our servants who were devout,” read the reciter from Surah Maryam, Verse 63.
In response, Pantami sobbed, “O Allah! Make me one of them. O Allah! Make me one of them!”
Clarifying why she posted the video in another post on Instagram on Monday, the First Lady said in Hausa, “Tafsir na Malam kan tsoron Allah ba tsoron mutum ba! Da aka cire tsoro da son Kai aka shiga Jihar Zamfara, abubuwa sun fara kyau. Sai a dage a shigo sauran wurare da ke bukatan haka. which can be interpreted as”, which can be interpreted as “Malam’s Tafsir was a about fearing God and not man! When fear and selfishness were removed and Zamfara State was entered, things started to go well. We need to move on to other areas that need it.”
Her post is coming amidst heightened offensive by the military in Zamfara state.
Many of the bandits’ leaders and their foot soldiers were said to have been killed since the blockage of communication and restriction of movement in the state.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had last week mandated all telecommunication operators in the country to stop extending services to Zamfara and its environs, effective Friday, September 3, 2021.
This was barely six months after the Nigerian government declared Zamfara State a ‘no-fly zone’ in a renewed effort to fight banditry and other forms of insecurity in the state.
This however countered the stance of a popular Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who stated that killing bandits would only worsen the security situation in the country.
Gumi had been visiting bandits in the forest in an attempt to negotiate a peace deal with them. He urged the Nigerian government to create a Ministry of Nomadic Affairs.
In a Facebook post last Friday, the cleric had said, “By the way, what you may not hear, is that the bandits over the years have developed escape routes from aerial bombardments. They told us: you can only kill our women and children with your attacks!
“Just yesterday, two contingents of banditry victims came to me that their loved ones were abducted by bandits in Kaduna suburbs – Rigachukun and Keke. An escapee engineer in the later said, when he overheard and understood that they were strangers in the area as they were calling the locals to lead them, that gave him the courage to slip through densely grown maize plantations to escape. The point is that, if Zamfara is on fire for them, definitely it goes without saying that they will migrate to other areas. So, is the whole of Nigeria going to be under lock-up in incommunicado?
“As for the economic impact of the areas now under siege, it’s just a matter of time, you’ll hear them crying out. Already yesterday a man from Tsafe came begging because of economic stagnation, one would have thought that Gusau the capital is closer than Kaduna to beg.
“As for those cynics that have no value to add in the dilemma except vituperation, and abuses, we know that is the substance they are made up of. No qualms whatsoever! you don’t expect fragrance from feces. So, what is the solution?
“Good Intelligence! Good proficient policing, engagement of the local herdsmen in policing, rehabilitation, reconciliation, and reparation of all victims of banditry. The good honest judiciary that protects people’s rights. Money and time well spent on these will surely kill the disease and heal the nation of this delinquency, crimes, and bad governance,” he said.