The Katsina State Government has raised alarm over the growing role of community informants in aiding banditry, warning that 80 percent of recent attacks were assisted by locals who provide food, drugs, and intelligence to criminals hiding in the forests.
Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Alhaji Nasir Mu’azu, made the disclosure on Thursday, July 31, in Katsina during a press briefing on the state’s security challenges.
Mu’azu revealed that members of some affected communities not only act as informants but also engage in exploitative trade with the bandits.
“In one of the communities affected by the insecurity, a man was found to be selling a bottle of Coca-Cola for ₦3,000; another sold fuel for ₦5,000 per litre to the bandits,” he said.
He added that banned substances and medication were also being sold at high prices to the criminals in their hideouts.
The commissioner further alleged that some locals go as far as collaborating in kidnapping schemes, including cases involving their own relatives.
“In another case, we found a man who connived with bandits to abduct his biological father, who was diabetic,” Mu’azu said.
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“When the bandits brought him to their hideout, they had already reserved diabetic tablets for his daily consumption.
The sum of ₦30 million was paid as ransom for the man, and ₦8 million was given to the man for compromising and allowing his father to be abducted.”
He also accused informants of tipping off criminals about military operations.
“Informants were known for alerting bandits whenever Nigeria Air Force (NAF) jets leave the airport with the aim of bombing their hideouts,” Mu’azu noted.
He said the bandits often evade airstrikes by seeking shelter under the very communities affected by their attacks.
According to him, only 20 percent of the problem lies with the bandits themselves, while the rest is fuelled by local enablers sabotaging security efforts.
While commending kinetic efforts by security agencies in some local councils, Mu’azu stressed the importance of non-kinetic approaches such as intelligence sharing and civic cooperation.
He urged the public to support security efforts by providing credible information, assuring them that all reports would be handled with utmost confidentiality.