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By Stephen Ubanna
Those who think that Nasiru El-Rufai, a former minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, during President Olusegun Administration and now governor of Kaduna state had paid the N200 million demanded by the Bandits, which are said to be working closely with the Islamic Fundamentalist Group, BokoHaram and the Islamic State of the West African Province, ISWAP to facilitate the release of the 85 year-old Alhassan Adamu, the Emir of Kajuru, in the north west state would be disappointed.
The Bandits who had expected El-rufai who had shunned any form of Negotiation with the Bandits with the Bandits in order to pay them ransom o secure the release of students that had been kidnapped in the state in the past months may have realized that the governor was not ready to change his position of not negotiating with them despite the pressure from both official and unofficial sources to do so.
The Kaduna state governor, who could not hide his feelings had repeatedly vowed not’ to negotiate with and pay ransom to Abductors, threatening to sanction anyone who follow such path’’. He had sent a message to the Bandits last April that his government will not negotiate with criminals, insisting that the government ‘’will not make any profit from Kaduna as the state government is not ready to pay them any penny except getting bullet wounds in returns.
The Bandits gang who are desperate to force Kaduna state governor to Negotiate with them through their agent to prepare the ground for the release of the second Class Monarch, may have made known their mission: to force the state government to pay ransom to them as they had released the Emir but failed to free the 13 members of the Palace kidnapped along with him when they stormed the Palace on Sunday, July 11, 2021, shooting sporadically to force the occupants out from their rooms into their waiting hands and subsequently forced into waiting vehicles and driven to unknown location in the state.
It was not surprising why they have resorted to plan B to release the aged Emir without pushing for the payment of the N200 million ransom to be paid to them to prevent him dying in their custody which would be a bad advertisement for them. It was not surprising why the Bandit gang had released him, on Monday, Monday, July 12, after a night in their custody. Residents had said that that the Emir may have been released to force him to put pressure on the Chairman of the Kajuru Local government Area and the State government to negotiate with them to facilitate the release of the 13 family members still in their customs in an undisclosed location.
Many believe that Bandits may have found easy to elease the abducted Emir, at undisclosed location within the Kjuru Emirae Council, because of tight security mounted in the state by security operatives in the state which was said to have made it difficult for them to cross over to Zamfara rorKatsina forests to contine to press for the payment of the N200 million ransom already demanded without playing into Farouk Yhaya, a Lt. General and Chief of Army Staff, COAS, vigilant officers on manhunt for the Emir and his 13 family members.
Abubakar Sa’a, a retired army General and Sultan of Sokoto who had expressed his worries over the Kidnap of an Emir, in Kaduna , fears that the revered throne of the Emir in the north inherited from their forefathers had been desecrated by the Bandits, an indication that no Emir, in the north west geo-political region is safe. This may have further confirmed the rumours making the rounds that majority of the Bandits living in the north west statates forests to carry out attacks in the region are not Nigerians and have no respect for traditional Institution. Many of them were said to have been drawn from the sub-saharan African Sahel countries of Niger, Mauritania, Libya, Chad, Cameroon and Mali.
Recall that the Kajuru Emir who had regained his freedom from the hands of the Kaduna Bandits without his 13 other family members still in their customs had been kidnapped barely six days after the abduction of 121 students of Bethel Baptist college in neighbouring Chikun Local government area. Note that feeding the children which had become a burden to them that they were said to have sent out message to the parents to send food stuff to feed them clearly confirms the horrible situation in their respective camps in the state and other camps outside the state.
Dosara Ibrahim, the Commissioner for Information, Zamfara, another north west state, described as haven for the Bandits, that there are about 100 camps with over 30,000 Bandits in the state and beyond carrying out attacks which had often resulted in the kidnap of innocent victims, particular,students , ostensibly to collect ransom from individuals or the state government.
Many believe that the Bandit gang which had abducted the Kajuru Emir, a town about 30 Kms, from Kaduna city, the state Capital, to further embarrass Elf, Rufai, the state governor, who had been on the neck of Lt. General Yahay, the COAS and UsmanAlkali Baba, the Inspector General of Police, IGP, to deploy more of their men to the state to beef up security in order to contain the activities of the Bandits. Security experts believe that for 2000 Bandits, armed to the teeth to have stormed the Emir of Kajuru’s Palac and took him with little or no resitance clearly confirms what Ibrahim, the Zamfara Commissioner of Information had said of the too many camps of the Bandits with over 30,000 members I the state and beyond, carrying out the attacks in the north west geo-political region.
