By Ayodele Oni
A security analyst and Convener of the Katsina Security Community Initiative, Bashir Kurfi has described the perpetrators of banditry as individuals without stable economic or social identities, making them difficult to organise or integrate into legitimate economic activities.
Kurfi, who has served as consultants to Libyan Government under Col. Ghaddafi’s on alternative to world bank, also questioned Nigeria’s intelligence and security screening process, following the reported arrest of suspected terrorists returning from the 2026 Hajj pilgrimage.
He was speaking during an interview on Frontline, a current affairs programme on Eagle 102. 5FM, Ilese Ijebu, Ogun State.
According to him, many initially engaged in cattle rustling before expanding into kidnapping for ransom and collaborating with terrorist groups for logistics and financial gains.
He said: “I think it is important to understand this banditry of how it is happening in the north. These bandits are basically those kind of people, kalamatas, elements.
“And they are very dangerous to our system because they have no definite class identity. You cannot mobilize bandits on fertilizer because he is not a farmer. He is a typical gangster, you can give him money to kill a revolutionary and he will.”
He described their operations as typically involving armed groups who live in forests before launching attacks on travellers and communities, where they carry out kidnappings and other violent crimes.
“Now, a lot of them get involved initially in basic cattle wrestling. They will attack Fulani. They are also from Fulani’s stock, but not all of them are Fulani’s.
“So they will attack, take their cows and wrestle them. So later on, when they develop, because of also the lexical attitude of the Nigerian system, it went wild.
“Then they went to the extent that they will kidnap people and ask for ransom. And then they link up with other terror organizations, like the Boko Haram, this one, and all this for logistic purposes to make some money.
“Usually they live in the bush and then they come and get people either on the road or in their homes. And All the atrocities they do. It’s unbelievable.” he lamented.
To illustrate the brutality of the attacks, Kurfi recounted an incident from his own village involving a theatre nurse whose wife and children were abducted by bandits.
He further added that victims are often subjected to additional demands and severe abuse even after ransom payments have been made.
“Perpetrators of banditry are not external actors but individuals drawn from within local communities, arguing that their proximity and familiarity with their environment make the situation more complex for security agencies to address.
“Now all these things are going on in this country. And the question is, who are these people? They are indigent of the place. They are not from any country or even far away. Many of the bandits in my area, I know their location. I know their houses.
“Some of them, I know their parents. And we know where they are. Whoever wants to know where they are, to go and bomb them or whatever, let them come, I will show them,” he said.
Kurfi who is also a retired University lecturer at the School of Business of ABU: “Now, I said that there is an allegation that these bandits, there are many of the commanders in Saudi Arabia.
“So and also, I said that also there is another allegation. Some of them were actually sponsored by the state government. So what we want, let the government come out and disprove this, and also prove that that is not because it’s an allegation. Nobody said that this is confirmed.”
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