How Sokoto Government Negotiated With Bandits During My Tenure – Ex-Gov Aminu Tambuwal

Former Sokoto State governor and current senator, Aminu Tambuwal, has admitted to engaging bandits through backdoor negotiations during his tenure in office.

Tambuwal disclosed this while noting that banditry in Nigeria is a combination of both foreign and Nigerian elements.

He made the remarks while appearing on Channels Television’s programme.

According to Tambuwal: “We did engage bandits through back door channels.

“Bandits are a combination of foreign elements and Nigerians. With the problems in the Sahel, particularly in Libya downwards, we have been having this problem and people don’t remember that this problem did not start today.

“Remember when Chad was like a state, there was an influx of arms into the country as far back as the 80s, so this problem has been there for a long time in the Sahel.

“Our borders are not properly manned, so you can’t say that there are no foreign elements in this banditry, there are, it’s criminality, it’s business to them and they are making money out of it.

“Boko Haram, you can say that they have a command structure and they are ideologically driven but banditry, yes they have some leadership but even among them, they fight themselves, so it’s hard to understand.” 

His comments come after former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai accused the Nigerian government of paying money to bandits.

"If the Office of the National Security Adviser(ONSA) thinks Nigerians are not following its unclear and incompetent management of terrorism and banditry in Northern Nigeria and beyond, in collaboration with a certain senator, also from the North, then it is high time it carried out an in-depth evaluation and review of its actions," El-Rufai wrote in a statement on X on Monday night.

He had also criticised payments allegedly being made by government officials to bandits in several northern states.

"We are not the first to reveal the government’s ongoing greasing of the palms of non-state actors in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Kebbi, and other states. No matter how incompetent in security matters he may be, the National Security Adviser cannot be oblivious of videos and audios of traditional rulers, community leaders and religious leaders condemning the payments made by the state to bandits. The attempt at denial falls flat as many citizens in the affected states have been following the counter-replies by community leaders and clerics on the issue of government paying bandits."

El-Rufai, during a television interview last Sunday, claimed the ONSA coordinated a policy of payments to criminals. 

However, in a statement issued on Monday in Abuja, ONSA described the claim as baseless, insisting no such practice exists under the current administration.

The statement, signed by Zakari Mijinyawa, stressed that the government has consistently warned Nigerians against paying ransom, adding that military operations have decimated notorious bandit leaders in Kaduna State, including Boderi, Baleri, Sani Yellow Janburos, Buhari, and Boka.