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Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda has revealed how a community leader collected a 700 thousand naira bribe from bandits and allowed the criminals to kill 30 people in his village.
Radda disclosed this while speaking at a town hall meeting held in Daura over the weekend, tagged ‘Public Engagement: 2025 Citizens’ Budget Participation Process.’
He noted that bandits and other criminals can't operate freely without the connivance of some persons in society.
He said his government was ready to support the people and security agents in protecting communities against bandits, kidnappers, and other criminals.
“We have come up with an initiative that for any community ready to defend itself, we will give them necessary support and training to engage criminals before the arrival of the security agents.
“I went to a village, Tsamiyar-jino, where it took me two hours inside a jeep before I reached the village from the main road. So, if bandits attack such areas, from the time you inform the security, it will take them over two hours before they can respond to the distress call. By then, whatever is going to happen will have happened. They will have killed people and kidnapped others.
“I have said several times that the security agents cannot do this work alone. We don’t even have enough of them. I am surprised at the way we are dying in such a humiliating manner. We were told that anyone who died in defence of his family would enter paradise.
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“You see five criminals attacking a community of 2,000 to 3,000 people, rape daughters, women and abducting others without any confrontation from the people of that community. If there are 100 youths in the community who confront them, they will not shoot more than three times without being captured with bare hands.
“Paying ransom doesn’t even prevent a hostage from being killed by abductors. Sometimes they collect the money and kill the victim,” he said.
Radda says community leaders collude with bandits
The Governor lamented that community leaders are now working in connivance with bandits to allow attacks in their domains for monetary gains.
“There was a representative of the village head who collected ₦700,000 from bandits and allowed them to enter his area and killed about 30 people,” the governor said.
“There were women arrested, and a teacher serving as their informant, in fact, almost all the segments of people are involved in this act.”
According to him, the Katsina government has created a community watch corps, which has been tasked to protect the residents.
“We trained them and attached them with the police and the army to work in synergy after providing them rifles, bulletproof vests, umbrellas, three sets of uniforms and shoes, among others,” he added.