‘We Decided To Kill 50 People For Every Slain Herdsman’ – Ex Head Of Zamfara Bandits

We decided to kill 50 people for every slain herdsman–Head of Zamfara bandits who renounced violence

Hassan
Dantawaye is the commander of bandits who recently renounced violence
following peace talks in Zamfara State. The bandits, who are Fulani
herdsmen, had been engaged in killing, kidnapping and other crimes,
which they blamed on cattle rustling and harassment by security agencies
and local vigilance group. Dantawaye tells MAIHARAJI ALTINE about the
peace initiative and some of the atrocities they had committed

Q:
You recently said your people were forced into a life of kidnapping,
killing and other crimes because you were unjustly treated by the
government and society, how were you treated unjustly?

A:
Thank you so much for this question. We the Fulani have been facing
serious challenges, both from the government and cattle rustlers, some
of whom are our own people. I mean some bad eggs among us. Most of them
are not even citizens of this country.

We were living peacefully
about 10 years ago. There was nothing like cattle rustling or kidnapping
let alone killings or destruction of innocent people’s properties. The
only issue we had then was Fulani herders/farmers clashes and they were
always addressed by community leaders of both the farmers and the
Fulani.

Let me tell you the truth of the matter, cattle
rustling was the genesis of armed banditry in this country. Many Fulani
like me have lost their cattle to the rustlers. You know that the Fulani
are neither farmers nor traders; they depend solely on the rearing of
animals. So when cattle rustling started in our state in 2013, we did
all we could to draw the attention of the government to the problem, to
do something about it, but nothing was done to stop the menace. The
government ignored our numerous complaints. So as time went on, most of
us lost almost all of our animals, and as a result of that, many decided
to also engage in cattle rustling to regain their lost animals and also
sell some of the animals to buy food and other things.

As time
went on, the government realised that cattle rustling was on the
increase. So, the former governor, Alhaji Abdul’aziz Yari, quickly
ordered that no cow should be sold or taken out of the state until it
was certified that the person selling it or taking it outside was the
genuine owner of the animal.

So that was when we started having
serious problems. We have stolen cows but we had no money to buy food
because we didn’t know how to sell the animals. One day, an idea came to
us that since the kidnapping of people for ransom was being done in
some parts of this country and people were making money from it, we
should adopt that to get money for our needs. So you see, if the
government had acted fast and arrested the issue of cattle rustling at
the time we complained about it, we wouldn’t have been involved in these
heinous activities.

Q: You said you also faced serious
harassment and intimidation from security personnel and Yan Sakai (a
local vigilance group), can you expatiate on your experience?

A:
Of course, we faced serious harassment and intimidation from the
security personnel and the vigilance group, a factor that further
worsened the security situation in the state. The security agents,
particularly the police, have been levying charges on our people. They
had been collecting money from us unnecessarily simply because both the
government and society consider every Fulani man as a criminal. When the
ban on the sale of cattle was imposed by the state government, the
police took advantage of that to extort money from even genuine Fulani
people who own animals, whenever they see them. This issue seriously
aggravated the insecurity problems in the state.

The vigilance
group and Yan Sakai have also contributed to the insecurity issue
considering their negative attitude towards the Fulani people. These two
groups have turned themselves into groups that are licensed to kill.
They killed any Fulani man they perceived as a bandit or cattle rustler
and the government did not take any serious action to stop the menace.
Many of our people were killed by these people. After realising that the
government was not ready to stop the killing of our people by these two
groups, we decided to pay back with reprisals. From that day, we
decided to kill at least 50 people whenever one of us was killed.

Q: You mentioned cattle rustling, how many cows are you aware were rustled in the last one year, or example?

A:
Nobody can answer this question but l can tell you that more than half
of our people have lost their animals. Many of them have died of
hypertension, while several others have turned to beggars as they have
nothing left with them.

Q: What was your personal cattle rustling experience?

A:
Believe me, I lost 372 cows and a large number of sheep. My family
members have also lost many. In fact, that was my reason for leaving my
village and moving to the forest as an alternative home and becoming a
bandit, because I had nothing left to depend on.

Q: In the course
of all that, did you share your concerns with the government before
your people resorted to kidnapping and killing?

A: How many times
do you want me to explain this? I told you that we did all we could to
convince the government to come to our aid, particularly with regards to
cattle rustling. The police had a bad attitude towards our people and
there was the persistent killing of our people by the villagers and
volunteer groups, but our appeals to the government fell on deaf ears.

Q: What specific response did you get?

A: Not much attention was given to our plight.

Q: How did you become the commander of the bandits?

A:
I became the commander because of my total commitment to the plight of
my people. They have respect for me because I am very sincere and
committed to protecting their interest. I am always contacted by the
present administration of Governor Bello Matawalle for any peace accord
and whatever he says is accepted by the group.

Q: What do you do normally?

A: As to how?

Q: How do you discharge your duty as the leader of the bandits?

A:
The issue is now over. We have embraced peace moves initiated by
Governor Matawalle, as such; there is no need for me to tell you the
mode of operations since the chapter is now closed.

Q: Are you all Fulani herdsmen?

A: Yes, the people under my command are all Fulani herdsmen. But I
cannot say that all bandits are Fulani people because there are several
instances where people from other tribes were arrested for banditry.
There are many people arrested for banditry and when you look at their
identities, you find out that some of them are not Fulani.

Q: How was the group formed? Did you all come together after identifying one another as victims of cattle rustling and so on?

A:
You are very correct. The majority of those in our group are victims of
armed banditry or other forms of intimidation by either the security
personnel or vigilance group. But there are also others who only joined
us to fight our enemies and also get something for their families.

Q: Did they undergo any training before they started kidnapping and killing?

A:
No, they didn’t need any special training except only on how to operate
AK 47 or other weapons. Once a person knew how to use a gun and fight
his enemy, he had met our requirements. The kidnapping issue is not
something one can be trained on. We normally had our targets. So we only
sent our boys to go and kidnap this or that person. We also blocked
some roads and kidnapped motorists.

Q: Many of you have surrendered weapons, guns and so on after renouncing, how many have been submitted to the government so far?

A:
We surrendered some guns, but you know, the peace process is still
ongoing. We are still studying the situation in order to ascertain the
level of commitment and seriousness of the government before we finally
surrender all of our weapons. Don’t forget that we had a similar peace
accord with the past administration of former Governor Yari, when
thousands of weapons were surrendered to the government. But at the end
of the day, the peace accord failed to yield any positive result. But, I
trust the current peace accord of the new governor, Alhaji Bello
Matawalle. The governor is really serious; that is why we have released
almost all those people we kidnapped in various places. We will soon
surrender all the weapons in our possession.

Q: How do your people get the weapons?

A: This is top secret. I cannot disclose this for now but when the time comes, I will answer your question.

Q: Why did you see kidnapping and killing as the solution?

A:
I told you earlier that we resorted to kidnapping because we were left
with no option as the government at that time banned the sale of animals
and we were almost out of cash to purchase food. Similarly, we resorted
to killing in order to avenge the killing of our own people by the
vigilance group and Yan Sakai.

Q: How many people were you involved in their kidnap?

A: They were many. I cannot precisely tell you their number.

Q: What about killing? Is that something you can talk about?

No.

Q: How were the peace talks with the vigilantes initiated?

A:
The peace talks were initiated by the state police commissioner, Alhaji
Usman Nagogo, who invited all the stakeholders, that is the Fulani
people, vigilance group and Yan Sakai to a meeting where every group was
given a chance to voice their grievances. After a series of meetings,
we all agreed that there was a need for all of us to forgive one another
and embrace peace. We agreed to release the people we had abducted if
the government could also release our people that had been imprisoned.

Governor
Matawalle has not only accepted our request but has also promised to
provide us with government assistance for us to live happily like our
counterparts, the farmers. He has also proscribed the activities of the
vigilance group and Yan Sakai.

Q: The public has also had
problems with the way your herders also roam from place to place with
their cattle, destroying farm crops and so on? Will you say that is
fair?

A: I will not say that it is fair. You see, farmers depend
on their farms to survive and the Fulani depend on their animals. So it
is very unfair for the Fulani to destroy food crops. But sometimes we
have no alternative because more than 80 per cent of grazing areas have
now been encroached into by farmers. There used to be enough grazing
lands demarcated by the government in those days mainly for cattle. They
are called cattle routes. These lands have been taken over by farmers
and the government did not bother much about it. So that is why we are
having problems with those who have encroached into the cattle routes
and grazing lands. If this issue is addressed by the government, I am
telling you, the issue of destruction of crops will be over.

Q:
Many of your kidnap victims are still in captivity; will you ensure the
release of all these people following the peace initiative?

A: As
far as I am concerned, nobody is currently being held captive in
Zamfara State. We have released our captives and the government has also
released our people arrested by security agents.

Q: But people
are still being kidnapped, though the situation has gone down, what are
you doing to ensure that killing and kidnapping stop totally?

A:
We have not kidnapped anybody in one week as the government is doing its
best to fulfil its promise. Nobody was kidnapped or killed during the
Eid el Kabir festival. So there is relative peace in the state now.

Q: How do you pass the message of peace across to the various cells of bandits?

A: It is easy to communicate nowadays with mobile phones. So we communicate with our people through phone calls.

Q: What do you think is the solution to all the problems of insecurity in the country?

This is very simple. Justice is the solution to the problem of insecurity in Nigeria.

Q: What do you mean?

A:
I mean everybody should be treated justly and with fairness. All
Nigerians must be treated equally. The government should try as much as
possible to make sure that the right of every Nigerian is adequately
protected. If this is done, I assure you, the problem of insecurity
would be adequately addressed.

{Naijafinix.com}