By Muazu Elazeh

By every reasonable standard, Katsina State’s plan to release bandits who were arrested and are facing prosecution for allegedly killing numerous people, kidnapping others for ransom, and raiding various communities is an attempt to unleash even more chaos on innocent citizens. That is exactly what it is, regardless of how the government frames it.

Faced with relentless attacks, gruesome killings, and widespread abductions for ransom by terrorists, some of whom are well known to their victims, the state government recently announced that its plan to set free 70 individuals being prosecuted for banditry, nay, terrorism, is part of efforts to promote peace in the state.

Katsina State experienced its first major massacre by bandits in March 2014, when renegades attacked communities in Faskari Local Government Area, killing about 103 people. I recall vividly that this mass killing, the first of such large-scale murder in the state, occurred while former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was on a two-day official visit to Katsina.

Enraged by the massacre, Jonathan ordered the Nigerian Army to ransack Rugu Forest and ensure that all insurgents hiding there were completely eradicated. More than a decade later, the bandits still operate recklessly. Rugu Forest was never truly ransacked and, as a result, continues to provide a safe haven for these terrorists who have since killed hundreds of innocent citizens.

The vastly rich Rugu Forest, bordering Katsina, Zamfara, Niger, and Kaduna States, as well as the neighbouring Niger Republic, which should ordinarily have been a major source of economic activity, has instead become a hiding place for terrorists who launch attacks across Katsina State.

What is undeniable, however, is that the killings of March 2014 marked the start of large-scale violence in that state. Since then, the extent of killings and abductions across communities in Faskari, Funtua, Kankara, Danmusa, Safana, Batsari, and Jibia local government areas has remained frightening.

Since 2014, hundreds of citizens have been killed, many abducted with millions of naira paid as ransom, and numerous communities displaced. In Katsina State, as in Zamfara and Sokoto, residents of some communities now abandon their homes at sunset and return at dawn because spending the night there is tantamount to committing suicide. Bandits strike unannounced and without restraint.

The gory tales told by victims of banditry in Katsina State, much like those from Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, and other states where these renegades appear to be having a field day, are heartbreaking. Wives have been widowed, children orphaned, and husbands turned into widowers. Entire communities have been ransacked, many forcibly relocated, and countless families pushed deeper into poverty.

Curiously, under these pitiable circumstances, the Katsina State government is striving to justify its decision to release 70 bandits currently held in prisons across Katsina, Daura, Funtua, and Dutsinma.

The prosecution of these bandits is at various stages. While some cases have been concluded and are awaiting final judgment, others are reportedly preparing to open defence before the court. Among those being considered for release are gang leaders accused of orchestrating some of the most horrific killings in the state.

There is something deeply disturbing about the state government’s decision. In the same Katsina State where the government publicly claimed it would not negotiate with terrorists, communities, openly supported by local government chairmen, negotiated and signed so-called peace deals with bandits.

No fewer than eleven local government areas, including Jibia, Batsari, Safana, Danmusa, Kurfi, Musawa, Matazu, Faskari, Kankara, Dandume, and Sabuwa, openly negotiated with bandits and signed agreements described by authorities as peace pacts in the presence of government officials, traditional rulers, and security personnel.

Yet, while all of this was unfolding openly, the state government insisted it opposed negotiations with bandits and would never, under any circumstances, engage in such talks. This contradiction naturally leaves Nigerians wondering whether there was a deliberate attempt to deceive the public.

If the mere idea of entering into so-called peace deals with individuals who have killed, raped, and abducted people for ransom was troubling, the fact that these agreements were reached without the bandits surrendering their weapons put paid to any pretence that genuine peace is being pursued.

These terror elements attended peace talks armed with AK-47 rifles, Rocket-Propelled Grenades, GMGs, and other deadly weapons, only to leave the venue and return to the forest with the same weapons in their possession.

If their heavily armed presence at peace meetings was not alarming enough, the audacity and arrogance displayed by some of the bandits’ representatives during those meetings should be even more disturbing. Have the killings and abductions ended? Has anything changed?

The latest move by the Katsina State Government to release these bandits, much like the earlier peace deals, further demonstrates that the government is acting from a position of weakness.

Tragically, even as discussions about their release continue, bandits have not ceased their attacks. Earlier this week, bandits attacked a wedding convoy in Kankara local government area of the state. Kankara is one of the more than eleven council areas that signed peace deals with bandits.

It is widely believed that bandits currently attacking neighbouring communities in Kano State, which has witnessed an intensification of attacks recently, are operating from their hideouts in Katsina State. Yet, the state government considers it appropriate to release some of the arrested renegades already undergoing prosecution. What then becomes of restorative justice? What impact will this decision have on the victims of these crimes? Is the state not endangering the lives of security personnel who risked everything to arrest these bandits in the first place?

How a government that once claimed it could not negotiate with bandits is now turning around to justify the release of known terrorists remains one of the many baffling contradictions of the Nigerian state.

Who could have imagined that we would arrive at a moment when individuals who have made vast parts of the state, particularly rural communities, uninhabitable, and who have imposed illegal taxes on helpless villagers, would be released under circumstances that defy both logic and justice?

First, the state, despite its pretence and repeated denials, negotiated with bandits who killed scores, including over 100 members of the Katsina Community Watch, raided hundreds of communities, and abducted countless others. Now, we are being told that steps are being taken to free the very bandits who are currently standing trial.

The danger here is clear and immediate: releasing these bandits could have disastrous consequences, as they return to communities where some residents reported them to security agencies. They will also come face-to-face with the security personnel who arrested them. What is likely to happen next is best left to the imagination.

I find it difficult to comprehend how a state whose former governor negotiated with bandits, even providing them with financial support in the hope that they would abandon crime, only to witness worsening insecurity, is now embarking on yet another vexatious initiative of releasing bandits.

What is unfolding in Katsina is not a prisoner swap, which some argue can be part of a peace accord. What is happening is a government acting from a position of weakness with non-state actors who have been emboldened by the state’s indecision and narcissism.

The fact that, despite these so-called peace deals, communities across several local government areas, especially in the southern senatorial district of the state, including Malumfashi, Faskari, Kafur, Dandume, Funtua, Matazu, Dutsin-Ma, Musawa, and Kankara, have continued to endure repeated attacks clearly shows that the deals were merely a ruse.

If even after these agreements, people were still being killed, villages were still being forced to pay illegal levies imposed by non-state actors, communities were still being attacked, and valuables carted away, what further evidence is needed to show that releasing these bandits will only worsen, not reduce, insecurity?

Undoubtedly, Katsina should reconsider its decision to release bandits facing trial. It will not resolve insecurity.

While recognising the efforts of subnational governments to maintain lasting peace in their regions, I firmly believe that the Office of the National Security Adviser must intervene urgently to halt these ill-conceived and dangerous actions by the Katsina State Government.