By Gabriel Omonhinmin
Birnin-Gwari is one of the Local Government Areas in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Its headquarters is Brirnin-Gwari town with an area of 6,185 km and a population of 252,363 according to the 2006 census.
His Royal Highness, Mallam Zubairu Jibril-Mai Gwari II, is the Emir of Birnin-Gwari, an ancient agrarian and commercial town in present day Kaduna State.
As at the last count, over 27,000 indigenes and known indigenes have been displaced by the activities of bandits.
On the 8th of November, 2018, Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar, former Chief of Air Staff, who visited the town, said “the Nigerian Air force is very happy about the progress the Air Force had made in its efforts to flush out the bandits in all the surrounding forest in those areas.
He said the Nigerian Air Force visited the place, because it was considering setting-up a small outpost in the place and to restrategize on the new methods to be adopted to tackle the bandits menace, who have made the entire surrounding areas as their safe heavens.
The former Air Force boss said, all the surrounding forests are inter connected, hence, it was difficult to pin the bandits to a spot.
The Nigerian Air Force outpost according to Air Marshal Sadiq Abubakar is to enable the Air Force planes, bombarding the forest, to refuel and continue with their assaults.
Three years after this statement and assurance, banditry in these areas and so many other places in Kaduna state is yet to be curtailed.
Palace Watch, then reached out to Alhaji Zubair Abdulrrauf – Danmassanin Birnin-Gwari, who is the spokesperson for the Birnin-Gwari Emirate and asked him whether the security situation in those areas have improved?
Danmassanin Birnin-Gwari: “My brother, I must confess, nothing has improved security wise in my town, Birnin-Gwari in Chikun Local Government Area. Other areas like Buruku, Udawa, DogoDawa and other surrounding towns are facing similar problem.
Instead, crimes in these areas, especially, Kuduru Hills and forest, have taken a multi-dimensional approach. Crimes have grown from cattle rustling that we used to know, to a more sophisticated crimes such as kidnapping and ransom payment. For about ten years, we were battling criminals over cattle rustling.
As I speak with you, there is no family in Birnin-Gwari, whose family members have not been kidnapped or raped.
At some point, one of my brothers was kidnapped, I had to sell all the grains I had to pay ransome. Banditry has taken a frightening dimension in all these areas, because of the activities of persons illegally mining solid minerals such as gold and tins, which are in large quantities in these areas.
What happens now, is that criminals either personally engaged in mining activities or give cover to illegal miners, who pay them handsomely. Money they raised through this process, is used to buy arms with which they terrorize the whole areas often times unchallenged.
He continued, “The criminals operating freely in this part of the country, are mostly, Ansaru an off-shoot of the dreaded Boko Haram and ISWA militias. Palace Watch: With this frightening picture you painted, how are your people faring economically?
Are your children still in school? Danmassanin Birnin-Gwari: Economic activities in all these areas including my place, Birnin-Gwari, has long been grounded by bandits.
Farmers in these areas, have abandoned their farms. So many have relocated to neighboring towns and villages around Kaduna State, where security situation is a little better, where they are eeking out a living doing all manners of miniature jobs to survive.
Most of these farmers left their families behind in BirninGawri town and villages. Some of our farmers who still manage to go to their farms, out of desperation, we are told, pay some money to these criminals to buy their ways through to and fro from their farms.
The Birnin-Gwari market that used to be a Transsahara market, has long been closed down as there is nothing to buy or sell.
All the financial institutions that used to operate and have offices in Birnin-Gwari town have long closed down. Birnin-Gwari, if you must know, is now a ghost town unfortunately.
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As we speak, the Birnin-Gawari people have lost well over 25 billion naira to all these criminals and their activities, we are now economically strangulated.
All education activities in Birnin-Gwari have failed, and all the social-economic activities in BirninGwari and the neighboring villages and towns have all been grounded to a halt for several years now.
The situation is so bad, that people can no longer visit their family members no matter how close. People no longer travel for fear of being molested or kidnapped by these criminals.
I must confess, people are fed up, not knowing what to do, with their lives. We are however, still hanging on, believing that better days will come.
“The most painful aspect of all these activities, is the fact, that school enrollment of our children have dropped drastically almost to a zero percent.
Parents no longer allow their children to go to school, for fear of not knowing what will happen to them. In ten to twenty years time from now, you can imagine what the implication of this, will be on our children.
It hurts that our children are no longer able to go to school to seek knowledge, which is very important to their general development in these period and time.
It hurts the more, because in a place like Birnin-Gwari, the level of education is still very low. No matter what any person in government, might want us to believe, say or portray about the general security situation in Kaduna state.
I must say, we need help. How soon this help will come, is left for Allah to decide. The Emir Mai-Gwari II, has asked all of us, to continue to pray for God’s intervention. This we are already doing now.
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