The Katsina State Government has revealed that about 80 per cent of bandit attacks in the state are being facilitated by informants and some members of local communities.
The Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Nasir Mu’azu, disclosed this while briefing journalists on Thursday in Katsina.
Mu’azu said some residents not only act as informants for criminal gangs but also supply them with essential goods at exorbitant prices, frustrating the efforts of security forces in tackling the crisis.
“In one community, a bottle of Coca-Cola was sold to bandits at N3,000, while fuel was sold at N5,000 per litre,” he said. “Some even provide drugs and illicit substances to the criminals, profiting from the insecurity.”
He further revealed that in some cases, community members collude directly with bandits to carry out abductions, sometimes targeting their own relatives.
“In one incident, a man facilitated the abduction of his diabetic father. The bandits had already stocked diabetic drugs for him. The family paid N30 million in ransom, and the son was given N8 million for his role in the abduction,” Mu’azu said.
He added that informants have also been sabotaging military operations by tipping off criminals about impending air raids by the Nigerian Air Force, NAF.
“Whenever jets are deployed for aerial operations, these informants alert the bandits, who then take cover among villagers,” the commissioner said, noting that this significantly undermines the success of military strikes.
Mu’azu said while banditry itself constitutes only about 20 per cent of the overall security challenge, the complicity of locals has become a major obstacle in restoring lasting peace to the state.
He called for greater cooperation from residents and urged them to provide actionable intelligence to security agencies, assuring that such information would be handled with strict confidentiality.
