How we negotiated with bandits – Tambuwal

Former Sokoto State governor, now senator, Aminu Tambuwal, has revealed that his administration once engaged with bandits through informal channels in a bid to address insecurity in the state.

Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Tambuwal said banditry in Nigeria has both local and external roots, worsened by instability across the Sahel region.

According to him: “We did engage bandits through back door channels. Bandits are a combination of foreign elements and Nigerians. With the problems in the Sahel, particularly in Libya downwards, we have been having this problem and people don’t remember that this problem did not start today.”

He further recalled the unchecked flow of arms into Nigeria dating back to the 1980s, adding: “Our borders are not properly manned, so you can’t say that there are no foreign elements in this banditry, there are, it’s criminality, it’s business to them and they are making money out of it.”

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Tambuwal distinguished between insurgents and bandits, stressing: “Boko Haram, you can say that they have a command structure and they are ideologically driven but banditry, yes they have some leadership but even among them, they fight themselves, so it’s hard to understand.”

His remarks come amid growing controversy after former Kaduna governor, Nasir El-Rufai, accused the federal government of paying off criminals. In a post on X, El-Rufai alleged: “If the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) thinks Nigerians are not following its unclear and incompetent management of terrorism and banditry in Northern Nigeria and beyond, in collaboration with a certain senator, also from the North, then it is high time it carried out an in-depth evaluation and review of its actions.”

El-Rufai further claimed that payments to bandits were being made in several northern states, including Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, and Kebbi, despite repeated denials by government officials.

The Office of the National Security Adviser, however, dismissed the allegations as unfounded. In a statement signed by Zakari Mijinyawa, ONSA insisted the government does not make payments to criminals and has continued to eliminate notorious bandit leaders through military operations in Kaduna State.