Samuel Aruwan, Pioneer Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs In Kaduna State has asserted that Northern Nigeria continues to grapple with the devastating impact of banditry, a phenomenon that has disrupted education, healthcare, and rural economies, warning that the crisis is not only a matter of law enforcement but also of cutting off the financial and logistical lifelines that sustain criminal networks.
In an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, Aruwan elaborated on the mechanisms behind banditry and the role communities sometimes play in inadvertently supporting these criminal enterprises, emphasising that tackling banditry requires more than arrests or military interventions, demands a comprehensive strategy that identifies and dismantles the financial, logistic, and societal enablers of crime and that that until communities and authorities address the channels that enable bandits to operate, the region’s insecurity will persist.
“In some communities, there are members of the communities who have become like a middleman, like a tipping tool to them. Bandits get access to our funds. So I recommend that this practice should be dismantled.”
Aruwan explained that financial support, access to fuel, and food supplies are among the key logistical needs that sustain bandit operations. “And above all, finances is very critical. The logistics, because bandits need fuel to operate, they move from one direction to another direction, they need food. The logistic companies that comprise their logistic needs, as well as finances, these are some of the issues that I said in the solution that we need to dismantle most of these things.”
Beyond finances and logistics, Aruwan highlighted the importance of strengthening the justice system and involving communities directly in security operations. “We also need to strengthen the justice system. We also need to strengthen security participatory… We need to strengthen what I would call security participatory system where everybody will be integrated in locations where we are having this complex issue.”
Aruwan also criticised the way media coverage and public discourse sometimes frame the banditry crisis along ethnic or religious lines. “Banditry must be divorced, separated from ethnicity and religion. Banditry must be seen within the prism of the fact that it is criminality. It is a terrorism going by what they have done.”
The consequences of banditry, according to Aruwan, extend far beyond immediate violence. “If you look at the North West and the North Central, threat to education is a big threat. This is a region that is battling with enrolment. What is a result of banditry, it has affected enrolment. You also look at the food security. You also look at the consequences of banditry on healthcare service delivery. You look at the collapse of rural economy. You also look at the fact that this banditry has made it very difficult for expansion of infrastructure across the region. I’ll give you one example. It may sound controversial, but then I know what I am saying. In the states that are battling banditry, there is hardly a public school. There is hardly a public school whose science student can credit English, mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry on edit. With the exception of some public schools in maybe Kwara, Wigid, Plateau, part of Niger.”
Aruwan stressed that media coverage must focus on the actions of criminals rather than their identities. “If you are dealing with a problem, and there is a negative profiling, it is very, very difficult to manage that situation. If you are dealing with a problem, and you are looking at the actions of individuals who are perpetrating that very malice, you take on them, definitely, they will have your image.”
He also highlighted a dangerous overlap between banditry and terrorism, explaining that some criminal groups are ideologically motivated while others pursue wealth and self-interest. “We’re still reporting largely on the same group of terrorists. In fact, there’s even a nexus between terrorism and criminality, which is ideology-driven and that which is just based purely off of self-interest and the pursuit of wealth.”
In addressing the long-term solutions, Aruwan emphasised intelligence gathering and real-time operational strategies. “We are not short of intelligence. We have real-time intelligence, actionable intelligence that we have developed in the solution. What is required for the security forces, the intelligence agents, we are critical of still to have a clear-cut collaboration and deals with that issue.”
Aruwan warned that failure to divorce identity politics from security narratives could have catastrophic consequences. “If we fail to divorce narratives of identity that are inimical to national security and stability, then we’ll continue to have problems.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
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