Community leaders and local government representatives from Charanchi and Batagarawa areas of Katsina State have entered into a fresh peace agreement with a group of armed men, popularly known as bandits.
The meeting, held in Wurma town, was notable for the bandits’ explicit claim that the Nigerian government is responsible for creating and sustaining their violent activities, effectively turning them into terrorists. They stated that the persistence of insecurity is dependent on the choices of the country’s leaders, not their own.
The peace meeting, was attended by the Chairman of Batagarawa Local Government, Hon. Yahaya Lawal Kawo, and traditional rulers, to discuss possible means to halt the cycle of violence in the state.
The most controversial aspect of the meeting was when a bandit directly accused the government for initiating and fueling banditry;
It was the government that wanted us to engage in banditry, but now it has called us and told us to stop. Therefore, by God’s grace, we have stopped from today…If the government wants all this insecurity to end, they have the power to end it, but they don’t want it to end
The incident follows remarks by Kaduna-based Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, who has long advocated for negotiation and amnesty for the armed groups.
Gumi, who has often been criticized for his sympathetic views toward the bandits, insists that the groups are primarily on revenge missions rather than committing unprovoked attacks.
Gumi argued that the bandits and Fulani herdsmen do not attack people without any cause, and that they are reacting to grievances and vengeance rooted in the loss of their kinsmen or property.
He has repeatedly urged the government to focus on unifying and rehabilitating the armed groups rather than solely relying on military force.
The claims by the bandits of government complicity are not officially accepted by the Federal Government of Nigeria. In November 2021, the federal government formally designated these groups as terrorists, making the discussion of peace deals with them legally and politically complex.
While the Federal Government generally maintains a policy of no negotiation with terrorists, state governments in the North-West, including Katsina, have frequently engaged in community-driven peace initiatives (often seen as indirect negotiations) to achieve temporary calm.
The prevalence of banditry has been devastating: between 2010 and May 2023, approximately 13,485 deaths were attributed to banditry, and ransom payments between 2011 and April 2020 amounted to at least $18.34 million.
The latest peace agreement in Katsina State offers immediate relief to the affected communities but raises critical questions about the national strategy.
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