Revealed! Zamfara indigenes discover 84 bandits’ informants, to name them publicly

*As bandits kill 5, wound 7 in fresh attack on mosque

ldibia Gabriel, Kaduna

Zanfara State indigenes have vowed to declare the names of 84 bandits’ informants uncovered and publicly expose them in the next one or two weeks.

Leader of the indigenes’ group called, Coalition of Rescue Mission Zamfara State, Dr. Suleiman Shuaibu Shinkafi, disclosed this while briefing journalists in Kaduna on bandits’ attack on a mosque which left five persons dead and seven others lying unconscious in hospital as a result of serious bullets wounds.

Dr. Shinkafi, who lamented the surge in bandits’ activities in the state, explained that the 84 informants are all in Shinkafi Local Government Area of the state, and vowed that nothing will stop the coalition from naming them.

He said bandits with rocket launchers invaded a mosque around 7 O’clock and opened fire on the worshippers, killing four instantly in Shinkafi LG while eight other persons who sustained serious bullet wounds were rushed to hospital, where one later died.

He also said that the bandits promised to come back to destroy the LG through a letter written to Shinkafi people by one of their leaders claiming Turuji by name.

Dr. Shinkafi further stated that the rumour being peddled by some people that nothing happened in Zamfara State is untrue. He, however, explained that no Police station was attacked in Shinkafi LG as speculated.

According to him, the attacks occurred at the extreme end of the LG metropolis, adding that only police defence officers heard of the incident.

The Coalition leader noted that even though laws enacted by the state Governor to check bandits activities were okay and in order, it is however required that the Federal Government support the effort because the Governor has no control over security personnel.

He added that the Governor is not in-charge of security and has no power to order the military, Police, DSS and other security operatives except President Buhari approves such, calling for the President’ intervention before bandits render the entire Shinkafi LG useless.

Dr. Shinkafi also said they know where the bandits are hiding and are fully prepared to take the lead in going there to show the security officers their hideout to finish them at once “otherwise Shinkafi LG would go extinct under the current threat.

“You know there’s no network in Zamfara now. We’ve a lot of bandits in Zamfara State now. The bandits say they have 84 informants in Shinkafi. We know some of them and very soon we’re going to declare their names publicly to pressmen.

“We cannot cover them when they’re committing atrocities, killing our people.

“We’ll surely call their names, list them and submit them to the Federal Government. I want to tell the informants today that in less than one or two weeks from now, I am going to name them even if you’re my father.

I know a lot of them with their dossier at hand. We’ve concluded our investigation and we have lots of evidence connecting the informants to the bandits”, he said.

Continuing, Dr. Shinkafi said: “Like me here, I know about 7 of them, and I am ready to expose them. They want to liaise with bandits to finish our people in the community”.

He also said the coalition is holding a stakeholders meeting soon, where it will call on journalists for support and expose all the informants.

“We’ll write their names in a list and submit to the state and federal governments to take action by arresting them.

On why it takes this long to come out to want to name them, he said: “We’ve finished the investigation about six months ago. We have to do that and get evidence to show before exposing them.

The informants are living a very big, executive life. The Federal Government and state may not know them but we the indigenes know them and are ready to name them.

Their cups are full. I personally will not spare them even if others would. Even if it will endanger my life, I don’t care. It’s a sacrifice. Heroes like the late Awolowo, Zik, Sardauna and others made sacrifices”, he vowed.

On if government refused to arrest and prosecute the informants, Shinkafi, a member of Police Service Commission, said he wouldn’t mind to drag federal and state governments to ECOWAS court for not prosecuting them.

He said he had to employ the services of heavy security men to be able to smuggle his mother, sisters and other family members from the area to Kaduna State due to heightened insecurity in Shinkafi.