Sultan of Sokoto laments over bandits’ actions in north
Yesterday, the Sultan of Sokoto and President of the Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (SCIA), Alhaji Saad Abubakar 111, painted a gloomy picture of banditry and general insecurity in the North.
The Sultan made the startling revelation at the 4th Quarter 2020 meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) in Abuja. He said insecurity in the North has become so intense that people were afraid to travel short distances.
He said bandits went about in the villages with their AK47, with nobody challenging them, describing northern Nigeria as the worst place to be. He said that the bandits would stop at markets to buy things and even collect change with their weapons.
“In fact, it is the worst place to be in this country because bandits go about in the villages with their AK47 and nobody talks to them. They stop at the markets and buy things and even collect change with their weapons.”
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Daily Times reports that he added: “We have serious security issues, bandits now walk into houses to kidnap, not on the highway anymore. Of recent, they went to institutions in Zaria and took away people. In the North West in particular, people don’t sleep with their eyes closed; just yesterday, a whole village was razed down in Sokoto; but you don’t hear about it.”
He said that the situation had become so bad that residents kept ransom at home in anticipation of visits by bandits. He recalled that some weeks ago, 76 people were killed in Sokoto by bandits in one day, saying most of the stories were not reported because the region lacked strong media presence.
Many people, he argued, thought the North was secure either because the atrocities in the region were under-reported or not reported at all.
